South Korea announced on Thursday (August 22nd) that it was putting an end to the General Agreement on Military Intelligence Security (GSOMIA) with Japan, in a context of tensions between Washington's two allies.

Blaming Japan for having created a "big change" in bilateral relations, the South Korean authorities have reached the decision that the continuation of this agreement would not serve the interests of the nation, reported the Deputy Director of the Council of National Security, Kim You-geun.

The quarrel between Tokyo and Seoul has worsened in recent weeks, after South Korean courts demanded Japanese companies to compensate South Koreans who were forced to work in their factories during the Japanese occupation. until the end of the Second World War.

Tokyo fought back on August 2 by deciding to remove South Korea from a list of states receiving special treatment, a measure perceived as a sanction by Seoul, which responded immediately with similar radiation.

"Maintain the dialogue"

The US administration declared Thursday "disappointed" by the decision of Seoul. While traveling in Canada, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on both countries to "maintain the dialogue".

"We urge both countries to continue to cooperate, to maintain the dialogue," he said at a press conference with his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland. "It is certain that the common interests of Japan and South Korea are important, especially for the United States," said the head of the American diplomacy. "We hope these two countries will be able to put their relationship back where it belongs."

Same story on the side of the Pentagon. "The Defense Ministry expresses its deep concern and disappointment after the Moon government's decision to refuse to maintain the" sharing "agreement with Japan, said a Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn.

"We firmly believe that the integrity of our mutual defense and our security ties must be maintained, despite the friction in other areas of relations between South Korea and Japan," the spokesman said. "We will maintain bilateral and trilateral defense cooperation with Japan and South Korea, where possible," he said.

The relations between the two countries have been plagued for decades by litigation inherited from the time when the peninsula was a Japanese colony (1910-1945).

And this latent conflict is a headache for Washington, which relies on cooperation between Japan and South Korea to support its policy in a particularly tense region due to the North Korean nuclear threat and the rise of power. China.

With AFP and Reuters