Korea, Japan formally sign military intelligence pact

In exchange, South Korea will supply Japan with highly classified information about the North’s missiles detected by long-range air search radar.

Japan is the 33rd country with which South Korea has signed a military deal.

But the GSOMIA has drawn backlash from the three opposition parties, who had demanded the negotiations be scrapped and plan to raise a joint motion next Wednesday for the dismissal of Defense Minister Han.

“But it will first attempt to strengthen its efforts in psychological warfare and consolidate its pro-North Korean elements within South Korea to induce movement towards a pro-Pyongyang government, because a full military invasion of the South is not possible at present”.

The agreement will be signed by South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo and Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Yasumasa Nagamine at the main office of South Korea’s Defense Ministry in Seoul.

The pact is to take effect after representatives of the countries formally sign it later this week.

A survey by Gallup Korea, a local pollster, showed 59 percent opposing it as they believe Seoul should refrain from strengthening military cooperation with Tokyo unrepentant of its brutalities during World War II.

The Defense Ministry claims directly shared military intelligence with Japan will help deter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

North Korea today slammed the pact, describing it as “dangerous”.

Seoul contributes more than $800 million a year toward the costs of maintaining the 28,000 US troops based in South Korea, about 40 percent of the total.The South Korean president’s deputy national security adviser said Michael Flynn, who Trump has nominated to be his national security adviser, told him last week he would work to strengthen the “vital” South Korean alliance. “They truly have everything there”, said Cha Ri-hyuk, 31, who came to South Korea in 2013.

The discussion on the controversial intellegence sharing pact was resumed on October 27 after four years gap.

Despite the trilateral deal, USA officials have called for a bilateral pact between Seoul and Tokyo as they seek to bolster three-way security cooperation with the two allies as a counterbalance to China’s rise.

North Korea has been testing different types of military hardware and has conducted two nuclear tests and more than a dozen missile launches this year.

A firing contest is seen in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency.

China, already angry at South Korea’s planned deployment of an advanced USA missile defense system, sharply criticized Seoul and Tokyo for a “cold war mentality”. President Park Geun-hye gave the final approval later in the day.