( Xinhua) 16:35, March 24, 2014 South Korea's Defense Ministry said Monday that time was not ripe yet for signing amilitary intelligence pact with Japan, which was dropped by Seoul two years ago amidstrong backlash at home.
Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a press briefing that working-levelofficials reviewed in the past whether to sign a memorandum of understanding for thetrilateral intelligence- sharing among South Korea, Japan and the United States as one ofvarious possible ideas.
Kim stressed the need for such intelligence-sharing among allies to respond to nuclear andmissile threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The spokesman, however, said conditions for the intelligence pact with Japan have notbeen shaped yet, noting that such move was not under way at present.
Seoul and Tokyo pushed for the bilateral pact to share military intelligence on the DPRK inJune 2012, but South Korea put the pact on hold at the last minute amid public uproar athome.
At that time, the Lee Myung-bak administration pushed the pact through without enoughpublic debate for fear of possible opposition from the public.
Amid frayed ties between Seoul and Tokyo, South Korea set its basic policy at turning tothe trilateral intelligence-sharing, according to a Seoul government official cited by the localdaily Chosun Ilbo.
"An MOU is being considered among defense ministers or defense intelligence chiefs ofSouth Korea, Japan and the United States instead of a bilateral agreement that could causepolitical controversy," said the official.
The military intelligence pact was reached between Seoul and Washington and betweenTokyo and Washington, but not between Seoul and Tokyo.
Relations between South Korea and Japan have been frayed since Prime Minister ShinzoAbe returned to power in December 2012. South Korean President Park Geun-hye refusedto hold a bilateral summit with Abe due to his cabinet's wrong perception of history.
Abe recently said that he and his cabinet will inherit the Kono and Murayama Statements,which led to a trilateral summit between Park, Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama onthe sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit held in The Hague, the Netherlands throughTuesday.
The Kono Statement acknowledged that the Japanese Imperial Army was involved in therecruitment of more than 200,000 young women and forced them to serve in brothels.The Murayama Statement apologized for sufferings caused by the Imperial Japan to itsAsian neighbors during the World War II. （Editor：GaoYinan、Liang Jun）
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