Seoul (AFP)
The sharing of military intelligence with Japan will continue, but via the United States, finally decided South Korea the day after Seoul's announcement of the unilateral termination of an agreement with Tokyo.
The relations between the two Asian countries, Washington allies, continue to deteriorate, against a backdrop of old disputes inherited from the Japanese colonial past on the Korean peninsula (1910-1945).
South Korea announced Thursday it would break a direct military intelligence sharing agreement with Japan - a pact known as GSOMIA.
The quarrel between Tokyo and Seoul has worsened sharply in recent weeks. South Korean courts have demanded Japanese companies to compensate South Koreans who were forced to work in their factories during the Japanese occupation.
For Japan, these issues have been settled since the signing of bilateral agreements in 1965.
GSOMIA was concluded in November 2016 under the aegis of Washington, in the context of the rise of North Korea's ballistic and nuclear programs.
But instead of the agreement, South Korea will now "actively use the trilateral information exchange channel, with the United States as an intermediary," said Kim Hyun-chong, a senior security official. to the South Korean presidency.
On Thursday, US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo said he was "disappointed" by Seoul's breakdown of the deal and called on both countries to "maintain the dialogue."
Japan and South Korea are both democracies, facing a rising China and a North Korea nuclear weapon. They are therefore considered as close allies by the United States.
© 2019 AFP