|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2019 23:35:20 GMT
 South Korea announced that was sticking with an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan that it had earlier said it would withdraw from amid a spat over history and trade. South Korea's earlier decision to halt intelligence-sharing agreement came amid a bitter feud over history and trade and despite pressure from the United States to maintain a key element of their trilateral security cooperation. If happened, the expiry of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) was to intensify discord between South Korea and the US, which wants its two Asian allies to keep their dispute out of security cooperation matters. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday expressed his gladness with South Korea's decision. "I stressed the importance of cooperation between Japan and South Korea, and Japan, South Korea and the United States," Abe said after Seoul informed Tokyo of its decision. |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 26, 2019 18:39:25 GMT
Japan and South Korea took fresh swipes at one another, raising questions about whether relations between the U.S. allies would improve after they reached a last-minute deal on Friday to rescue an expiring intelligence-sharing pact.
Japan late Sunday rejected a South Korean complaint over the wording of an announcement that the two sides would hold talks on a dispute over export controls. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Twitter that the announcement was in line with prior discussions with South Korea, after Seoul accused Tokyo of intentionally leaking and distorting information about the agreement.
South Korea on Friday suspended its plans to pull out of their intelligence-sharing pact known as the General Security of Military Information Agreement and said it would temporarily withdraw a complaint it made against Japan at the World Trade Organization. The developments marked a rare reversal in tensions that have plunged to new depths in recent years and spilled over to hurt trade and tourism.
The foreign ministers of the two countries then agreed in a meeting in Nagoya on Saturday to work toward a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of a trilateral meeting with China next month.
But on Sunday, the South Korean presidential office expressed deep regret over the Japanese government’s handling of the joint announcement on GSOMIA. It accused Tokyo of not abiding by agreed timing for their joint statements and objected to some of its characterization of South Korea’s positions.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 27, 2019 21:47:54 GMT
President Donald Trump’s demands for vast increases in South Korean and Japanese financial contributions to maintain U.S. bases and forces has triggered fears here that he’s eager for massive troop withdrawals from the territory of these U.S. allies. And while the scale and the history are very different, the capricious way that Trump ordered U.S. forces pulled out of northeast Syria in October is seen as a cautionary example.
Although some U.S. troops reportedly are back in action in Syria, Trump created murderous confusion when he suddenly decided to pull about 1,000 of them out on Oct. 6, betraying longtime Kurdish allies beleaguered by the Turks, Syrians, Russians, and ISIS guerrillas. The overwhelming concern here is that the impetuous and ill-informed action in Syria was a rehearsal for much greater reductions in U.S. forces in northeast Asia. Trump has questioned the need for them, and their cost, for many years.
“My Korean colleagues worry that the Syria withdrawal could also be applied to Korea, and potentially with similar very negative consequences,” says Bruce Bennett, senior researcher at RAND Corp. “Actions like the Syria withdrawal cause our allies to worry that they could be next, and that worry undermines the strength of our alliances.”
The U.S. role in Korea was put to the test last week when James DeHart, chief U.S. negotiator on the bases, staged a precipitous walkout after two hours getting nowhere in a meeting here with South Korea’s negotiator.
South Korea contributed approximately $900 million this year to the bases, up 8 percent from 2018. But Trump wants to up the price to Seoul by 400 percent to $5 billion, a figure he seems to have pulled out of thin air and that the Pentagon has had trouble justifying. (As MIT Prof. Vipin Narang told CNN in a memorable remark, “Nothing says ‘I love you’ like a shakedown.”)
DeHart, Trump’s negotiator, read a brief statement saying South Korea’s counter-proposal to Trump’s demand for raising the South Korean outlay was “not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden-sharing.” Thus “we cut short our participation in the talks” in hopes the Koreans would “put forward new proposals….”
|
|
