Despite trade tensions between South Korea and Japan, recent events have indicated that there is some way of understanding. This became more difficult as Seoul ended its bilateral intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo, adding a new level of uncertainty to the crisis.
Before Korea's decision not to renew the intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan, the Japanese government took the initial step to issue licenses for two types of biochemicals for the South Korean electronics industry, which has been under new national security restrictions since July.
Meanwhile, Korean President Moon Jae left the door open for talks in his Liberation Day speech instead of adopting a tough nationalist speech, while the foreign ministers of the two countries agreed that talks should be held to address the historical issue underlying the conflict.
In this context, the failure to renew the General Security Agreement on Military Information, which facilitated the exchange of intelligence between the two countries, seems puzzling, especially in light of recent missile tests by North Korea.
The two countries signed the agreement in 2016 despite opposition from 59 percent of the South Korean public.However, despite current tensions between South Korea and Japan, only 47.7 percent of Koreans initially support an end to the agreement.
The US-backed agreement has long helped improve trilateral cooperation and provided a direct line for South Korea and Japan to share intelligence on the northern neighbor and other security issues in the region. The agreement also helped Seoul and Tokyo fill gaps in their intelligence bloc against North Korea. Japan has been able to provide its ally with data on long-range missile tests that it has not been able to track, while South Korea has human intelligence resources in the north that Japan cannot obtain.
While the end of the security pact will make intelligence sharing less efficient, that does not mean the end of the exchange of information between South Korea and Japan. The agreement expires only after 90 days, and in the short term, Seoul has agreed to provide intelligence to Japan on North Korea's latest missile launch.
In the long run, information can be exchanged through other means. The United States, South Korea, and Japan are all parties to the TISA. However, this agreement covers a narrower field of information than the bilateral agreement, and requires Seoul and Tokyo to use the US as an intermediary for intelligence sharing, which may slow cooperation during The crisis will also make it more difficult to face other challenges such as the recent incursion by China and Russia into South Korea's airspace.
Seoul's move was not welcome in Washington or Tokyo, and this is to be expected. A Pentagon official expressed "concern and disappointment", while Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said South Korea did not understand the regional security situation.
Resolving the current crisis will take some time and will require compromise and concessions from both sides. Achieving the “right place” proposed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will require accepting many issues between South Korea and Japan now, and that resolving them requires progress on all of these issues.
The failure to renew the General Security Agreement on Military Information, which facilitated the exchange of intelligence between South Korea and Japan, seems puzzling, especially in light of recent missile tests by North Korea.