Tag: GSOMIA

It is official now that the GSOMIA has now been restored between Tokyo and Seoul:

South Korea on Tuesday fully restored its military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo, the foreign ministry said, as part of efforts to thaw long-frozen ties following a recent bilateral summit.

South Korea sent an official letter to Japan earlier in the day via diplomatic channels informing of its decision to fully restore the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) between the neighbors, the ministry said.

Signed in 2016, GSOMIA was seen as a rare symbol of security cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo before the former administration of President Moon Jae-in decided to terminate it in 2019 in protest of Japan’s export restrictions against South Korea.

The decision to suspend the pact was later put on hold, but the amount of information sharing between the neighboring countries is thought to have been limited, as their relations remained strained over disputes stemming from Japan’s colonial rule.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

With North Korea’s increasing belligerence it only makes sense to tighten military cooperation with Japan:

The defense ministry initiated the process to normalize a military intelligence-sharing deal with Japan on Friday, following a summit agreement between the leaders of both countries the previous day.

The defense ministry said it sent a letter to the foreign ministry requesting measures to normalize the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).

The foreign ministry is soon expected to send an official letter to its Japanese counterpart in response, officials said.

On Thursday, President Yoon Suk Yeol said he agreed to “completely normalize” the military pact during his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo as part of efforts to better respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Whatever the Blue House is trying to do with the GSOMIA that have not briefed Ambassador Harris on it apparently:

U.S. Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris said he was unaware of renewed talk in the Korean government about the possibility of scrapping a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan known as Gsomia, but he stressed that the American position remains that the agreement is “important.” 

Sitting down with JoongAng Ilbo reporters and a video crew after a tour of his residence, Habib House, Ambassador Harris said, “[Gsomia] is a bilateral agreement between Korea and Japan, and the challenges they have – they have to work out.”

In an exclusive report on Monday, the JoongAng Ilbo reported that a hard-line stance in favor of terminating Gsomia was gaining momentum in the Blue House, citing a government source familiar with Korea-Japan ties. 

Terminating Gsomia, short for General Security of Military Information Agreement, continues to be Seoul’s most powerful trump card in negotiations with Tokyo as the two neighboring countries remain stuck in a diplomatic and trade spat over Japan’s use of Korean forced labor during World War II. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It figures that the Moon administration would bring up the GSOMIA issue again before April’s parliamentary elections in order to promote anti-Japanese sentiment:

Controversy is resurfacing over the possible termination of a military intelligence sharing agreement with Japan, ahead of the March 1 Independence Day and the April 15 general election. 

Speculation is mounting that the government could ultimately terminate the General Security of Information Sharing Agreement (GSOMIA), given the absence of any significant outcome from bilateral negotiations to remove Japan’s trade restrictions imposed on certain Korean companies last summer. In response to the restrictions, the government announced the termination of the agreement, but held off on this in November to show its commitment to bilateral negotiations to settle the trade dispute. (……)

During a recent press conference, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said that Korea could still consider terminating the GSOMIA depending on what is deemed best for the “national interest.” “There have been talks between the export authorities, but we have still not returned to the situation before July 1 [when Japan imposed the exports ban],” Kang said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear how important April’s vote is for the Blue House. They have changed election laws that will increase the number of unelected left wing parliament seats, covered up the investigations into Blue House corruption, fired the head of Statistics Korea to get better economic stats, has not reached a cost sharing deal with the U.S., and now threatening to cancel the GSOMIA pact again.

Considering all the U.S. pressure that the Moon administration has been facing from the U.S. this must be the face saving way they are attempting to maintain the GSOMIA without looking like they backed down:

 South Korea announced a decision Friday to “conditionally” suspend the expiry of a military information-sharing accord with Japan.

South Korea has also decided to temporarily halt a petition process at the World Trade Organization while negotiations with Japan on the two sides’ export control policies go on, Kim You-geun, deputy director of Cheong Wa Dae’s national security office, said at a press briefing.

He added the two sides have agreed to resume working-level talks to discuss the export controls.

It paves the way for the two sides to focus on substantive dialogue, at least for the time being, on pending bilateral issues such as compensation for wartime forced labor and the trade dispute. Depending on progress, President Moon Jae-in may hold one-on-one summit talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next month.

Seoul’s announcement was made six hours before the expiry of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), scheduled at the end of the day. 

A key condition is that South Korea can terminate GSOMIA at any time it wants and Japan has expressed “understanding” over it, Kim said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting read from ROK Drop favorite, Dr. Tara O about what North Korea calls their tactic to separate the ROK, US, and Japan from each other:

What else can North Korea do?  Focus on Japan.  It can try to weaken South Korea-Japan relations by using anti-Japan feelings among South Koreans, maintained by emphasizing historical animosity.  

Gat is a hat Korean men used to wear during the Chosun Dynasty.  It has a large brim with two strings that go around the sides of the face to tie in the middle to secure the hat in its place.   According to Kim Il-sung’s “Gat-Geun Tactic” (41:05), one string represents South Korea’s alliance with the U.S. and the other string represents South Korea’s relations with Japan.  By cutting off one string, the hat blows off.  Thus, by destroying South Korea’s relations with Japan, South Korea itself crumbles–and that is how Kim Il-sung describes the Gat-Geun Tactic, which is part of the Kim family regime’s anti-South Korea strategy.  

Kim Il-sung first used the term Gat-Geun Tactic in 1969, when he gave a speech at Kim Jong-il Political Military University, which trains espionage agents and operatives.  Kim Il-sung emphasized the tactic again in 1972 in his speech during the graduation ceremony at Kim Il Political University.

Hwang Jang-yop, the most senior North Korean figure to defect to South Korea, also said the North Korean regime is making full use of the Gat-Geun Tactic of weakening the South Korea-U.S. alliance and South Korea-Japan relations as part of its united front tactics.

East Asia Research Center

You can read more at the link.

As I predicted there was no way that the Moon administration was going to reverse course on withdrawing from the GSOMIA. Promoting anti-Japanese sentiment is literally the only issue his party has to run on for the parliamentary elections coming up early next year. Reversing the decision on the GSOMIA would have been a major loss of face for the Moon administration:

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday he will try to persuade Japan to “smoothly” resolve the dispute over the two neighbors’ military information-sharing arrangement, according to the presidential office.

During a 50-minute meeting with Esper at Cheong Wa Dae, Moon explained his government’s basic position that it’s “difficult to share military information” with Japan, which has imposed export restrictions against South Korea for a stated reason that Seoul is not trustworthy as a security partner, Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Ko Min-jung said.

In late August, the Moon administration decided not to renew the General Security of Military Agreement (GSOMIA) and it’s slated to expire as of next Saturday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

As I have been saying the Moon administration needs an issue to run on in Parliamentary elections coming up early next year and really the only thing they got is the anti-Japan issue. From their point of view there is currently no reason to resolve this issue:

Washington is putting pressure on Seoul to renew the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Tokyo ahead of the Nov. 22 notification deadline to terminate the pact, which was signed at the U.S. initiative in 2016. Washington has sent key defense officials to Seoul this week ahead of the deadline. 

President Moon Jae-in will meet U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper this afternoon, according to Cheong Wa Dae. During the meeting, Moon is expected to explain the need to terminate the pact owing to Japan’s unchanged position on its trade restrictions against Korean companies. He is also expected to reiterate “equitable” cost-sharing for U.S. troops stationed in Korea amid ongoing negotiations on this issue. 

With the GSOMIA termination deadline only days away, there is intense media attention particularly on whether Cheong Wa Dae, which has adamantly called on Japan to reverse its trade restrictions first, may shift its stance, given the escalating pressure from the United States to maintain the agreement for the sake of “trilateral security cooperation.” 

However, it is unlikely that the presidential office will reverse its decision in light of Japan’s ongoing trade restrictions and its relentless stance on historical disagreements between the two countries, according to sources. During a Nov. 10 press conference, Chung Eui-yong, chief of the National Security Office (NSO), reiterated that Japan should make the first move and justified Korea’s decision to end the pact. “From our point of view, the recent difficulties in Korea-Japan relations were fundamentally caused by Japan,” Chung said. “I believe the Korean people understand that we could not extend the GSOMIA after Japan said that it carried out the trade restrictions because bilateral trust for security cooperation had been harmed.” 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration is blaming Japan for the trade dispute when it was the Moon administration that threatened to seize the assets of Japanese companies to pay World War II forced laborers even though an agreement was signed in 1965 that settled this issue and normalized relations between the two countries.

I will be highly surprised if the Moon administration keeps the GSOMIA in place because they need to feed anti-Japanese sentiment for next year’s parliamentary elections. Plus the Moon administration can use the GSOMIA as a bargaining chip with the US in the ongoing cost sharing negotiations:

Against this backdrop, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Sunday, Korea can’t cooperate with Japan “as long as they deem us an untrustworthy partner and continue to impose export curbs.”

Speaking before the National Assembly, Friday, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, also said Japan’s removal of the export control should be a precondition for Korea’s possible change concerning the GSOMIA decision.

On whether Beijing and Pyongyang will benefit most from the termination of GSOMIA, Kang said “Such assessment is possible.”

Shin speculated the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Seoul from Nov. 15 to 16, and G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Nagoya, Japan, from Nov. 22 to 23 may be the “last chance” to settle the GSOMIA dispute.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.