SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korea will reconsider the termination of the military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, called the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), if Japan scraps export curbs, Seoul's defense ministry said Thursday.
Choi Hyun-soo, defense ministry spokesperson, told a press briefing that there has been no change in South Korea's position that the country will review various measures, including the GSOMIA, if Japan withdraws its unfair, retaliatory measures, and if friendly relations between Seoul and Tokyo are restored.
Asked about U.S. officials recently calling for the renewal of the Seoul-Tokyo military accord, the spokesperson said the calls were seen as an emphasis for the importance of cooperation among the friendly countries.
The comments came ahead of the scheduled termination on Nov. 23 of the GSOMIA, which was signed in November 2016 by South Korea and Japan to share military intelligence on the nuclear and missile programs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
South Korea decided in August to scrap the military accord in response to Japan's tightened regulations in July over its export to South Korea of three materials, vital to produce memory chips and display panels that are the mainstay of the South Korean export.
Japan's export curbs came in an apparent protest against the South Korean top court's rulings that ordered some of Japanese companies to pay reparation to the South Korean victims who were forced into hard labor without pay during the 1910-45 Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
In August, Japan dropped South Korea off its whitelist of trusted trading partners that are given preferential export procedure. In response, Seoul removed Tokyo from its whitelist of trusted export partners.
