Will there any hope for Japan and S. Korea to fix its military-intelligence sharing pact? (Image via www.orfonline.org)

Japan's, S. Korea's defense minister to meet to discuss GSOMIA

On the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Bangkok, Thailand, Japan and South Korea (S. Korea) finalized the talks to hold a meeting between their Ministers of Defense as revealed by a source of the Japanese government on Monday.

The meeting between Japan’s Minister of Defense, Taro Kono, and his S. Korean counterpart, Jeong Kyeong Doo, will be held on 22 November, on the sidelines of the annual ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus.

Should the meeting be realized, it will be their second meeting since their first in October last year.

Both of the Defense Ministers are going to discuss the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) which will be expired at the end of November. The objective for Kono will be to persuade Jeong to ask S. Korea to retract its decision to not renew the military-intelligence sharing pact. Kono had asked S. Korea repetitively to keep GSOMIA alive.

A trilateral meeting is also scheduled for Japan, S. Korea, and the United States (U.S) to talk about GSOMIA. U.S Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, is coming to Seoul on Thursday.

Japan and the U.S stated the same thing. They want the GSOMIA to continue to tackle the ballistic missile threats from North Korea (N. Korea). S. Korea, however, remains firm on its stance, demanding Japan to withdraw the export curbs on essential chemical components required by S. Korean companies to produce semiconductors and display panels.

However, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said that GSOMIA and export curb are not related to each other.

Source: https://bit.ly/36XLZdO