South Korea and Japan have signed a controversial agreement to pool military intelligence on Pyongyang's nuclear program. The deal lets both countries bypass the United States when sharing information about North Korea.
Image: Reuters/Yonhap/The Defense Ministry Seoul
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The pact, known as the the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), was signed on Wednesday in Seoul by South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-koo and Japan's ambassador to Seoul, Yasumasa Nagamine.
The deal has sparked an outcry from South Korean opposition parties and large sections of the public, many of whom still share anti-Japanese sentiment over Tokyo's harsh colonial rule of the peninsula in first half of the 20th century.
However, Seoul's Defense Ministry said it was "necessary" in the face of an increasing military threat posed by Pyongyang.
Currently, Seoul and Tokyo use Washington as an intermediary when sharing intelligence on North Korea's nuclear program under a deal signed in 2014. The GSOMIA accord will allow both sides to bypass the United States and the incoming Donald Trump administration.
"[North Korea] is ready to conduct additional nuclear tests and missile launches at any time," South Korea's Defense Ministry said. "Since we can now utilize Japan's intelligence capability to effectively deal with North Korea's escalating nuclear and missile threats, it will enhance our security interests."
Japan's Foreign Ministry said the agreement will allow the two governments to " share information even more smoothly and swiftly."
Both countries wanted to sign such a deal in 2012, but Seoul backtracked at the last minute due to domestic opposition.
However, both sides said the case for an information-sharing deal had become increasingly important as the North tested more and more missiles. In September, North Korea also conducted a majornuclear warheadtest.
North Korea on Wednesday slammed the pact, describing it as "dangerous" and warning that it would open a door to a Japanese "re-invasion" of the Korean peninsula.
Backlash in Seoul
The deal has sparked a backlash in the South where anti-Japanese sentiment remains strong among sections of the public. The legacy of Japan's colonial rule of the peninsula between 1910 and 1945 remains a sensitive issue today, with many South Koreans believing Tokyo has never properly atoned for abuses committed in that era.
On Friday, a survey by Gallup Korea showed that 59 percent of more than 1,000 respondents opposed the GSOMIA agreement.
South Korea's main opposition party called the deal "unpatriotic and humiliating," and threatened to impeach Defense Minister Han if the agreement goes through.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye is already facing calls to step down after becoming embroiled in a widening corruption and influence-peddling scandal that has embroiled the government and sparked mass public demonstrations.
North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
A team of journalists explored North Korea for a week, accompanied by officials who monitored the images and ensured not a single citizen was interviewed. The secluded country opened up and revealed itself.
The reporters from AP covered over 2,150 kilometers (1,336 miles), in a country of barely 25,000 kilometers of roads, merely 724 of those paved. They came back with only their photos as evidence of the life in the northern part of the secluded country. In the picture: A woman walks along a road southeast of Pyongyang in North Korea's North Hwanghae province.
A North Korean man sits by a cooking fire he built to roast potatoes and chicken in the town of Samjiyon, in Ryanggang province. Possibly more than any other populated place on earth, North Korea is terra incognita, but the AP team was granted access to see North Korea and travel through places that, they were told, no foreign journalist and few foreigners had been allowed to see before.
A boulder lies on a path near the peak of Mount Paektu in North Korea's Ryanggang province. North Koreans venerate Mount Paektu for its natural beauty, but more importantly because it is considered the home of the North Korean revolution. They also consider the mountain sacred as the place of their ancestral origin.
Farmers walk in a rainstorm with their cattle near the town of Hyesan, North Korea in Ryanggang province. "To get out of Pyongyang, we weaved our way around buses, streetcars, the black sedans of party officials and fleets of colorful new taxis that have over the past few years become commonplace," says Eric Talmadge, one of the jourmalists who participated in the journey.
Young North Korean schoolchildren help to fix pot holes in a rural road in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. The country's best road is the 200-kilometer stretch of highway connecting the capital to the east coast port city of Wonsan. Beyond Wonsan, potholes, cracks or sudden patches of dirt road make travel a bumpy experience.
North Korean residents walk on along a river in the town of Kimchaek, in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. The once-productive cities along its east coast, like the coal mining town of Kilju and the nearby city of Kimchaek - built around a sprawling but now eerily quiet ironworks complex - have become a rust belt, gritty and relentlessly gray.
The remains of lunch left on a restaurant table in the city of Wonsan, North Korea. The government "minders" accompanied the journalists throughout the entire trip. Like foreign tourists, the AP team only saw a bare trace of the deprivation residents experience. Most of the country's citizens cannot afford proper housing, let alone a visit to a restaurant.
The journalists' itineary was dictated by North Korea's terms. There would be no stopping to interview random people. "It's quite possible none of them had ever seen an American before," said AP's Eric Talmadge, "but our presence went unacknowledged. No glances were exchanged. No words were spoken." Here boys are playing soccer in the town of Hyesan, in the northern Ryanggang province.
North Korean men share a picnic lunch and North Korean-brewed and bottled Taedonggang beer along the road in North Korea's North Hwanghae province. This year, according to United Nations experts, the country could come closer to feeding itself than it has in decades. But hunger remains a serious problem, with a third of North Korean children stunted in growth due to poor nutrition.
A farmer carries a fully grown cabbage after harvesting it from the main crop which will be harvested early November, on the outskirts of Pyongyang. About four-fifths of North Korea's land is too rugged to farm. Providing enough food to feed the nation is a struggle for North Korea, which suffered a near cataclysmic famine in the 1990s.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Wong Maye-E
No detour allowed
A man works on his car as others sit next to the Wonsan Sea in North Korea. For the most part, AP's reporters were not allowed to detour from their pre-approved route, which, to no one's surprise, did not include nuclear facilities or prison camps.
A group of young North Koreans enjoys a picnic on the beach in Wonsan. "Even on the loneliest of lonely highways, we would never be without a 'minder,' whose job was to monitor and supervise our activities," Talmadge explains. "We were not to take photographs of any checkpoints or military installations."
North Korean people rest next to the railroad tracks in a town in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. "Though we would not get to know the people along the way, the country itself had a great deal to say. And it was opening up before us," Talmadge said upon his return. "We had been granted unprecedented access."
