S. Korea, Japan to hold working-level talks ahead of GSOMIA expiry

Published : Nov 15, 2019 - 09:18 Updated : Nov 15, 2019 - 09:18

South Korea and Japan were set to hold working-level diplomatic talks on Friday ahead of the planned expiration of a military intelligence-sharing pact between the two neighbors.

Kim Jung-han, director-general for Asian and Pacific affairs at the foreign ministry, will meet his Japanese counterpart, Shigeki Takizaki, in Tokyo, Seoul's foreign ministry said. They last held talks in Seoul on Oct. 16.

Director general Kim Jung-han of Asian and Pacific Affairs at Seoul’s Foreign Ministry (Yonhap)

His trip comes as the General Security of Military Information Agreement is set to expire on Nov. 23 unless Seoul reverses its decision to end the pact.

Washington has been heaping pressure on Seoul to reconsider the decision on the military agreement, which it regards as a key platform for trilateral security cooperation with its two Asian allies.

Seoul announced the decision in August after Tokyo imposed economic restrictions on Seoul in political retaliation for last year's Korean Supreme Court rulings that ordered Japanese firms to compensate victims of forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the peninsula.

Seoul maintains that any reconsideration would be possible only after Japan first reverses course and removes the export curbs.

In June, Seoul put forward the so-called one-plus-one proposal under which South Korean and Japanese firms would create a joint fund to compensate the victims of forced labor as a solution to the dispute.

But Tokyo opposes any deal that would involve Japanese firms based on its claim that all reparation issues stemming from its colonial rule were settled under a 1965 accord aimed at normalizing bilateral relations. (Yonhap)