President Yoon Seok-yeol announced that they had agreed to completely normalize the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), which had suffered a wave of termination in 2019, through a Korea-Japan summit held at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo on the 16th. In addition, with the summit held on the same day, the two countries decided to lift Japan’s export restrictions applied to three semiconductor materials to South Korea, and the Korean government to withdraw its World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint against Japan. In July 2019, the relationship between the two countries, which had been complicatedly twisted across security and economy, such as Japan’s export restrictions to Korea, measures to exclude ‘white list’ (export preferential countries), and the Korean government’s suspension of GSOMIA extension as a result, has been going on for 3 years and 8 months. It has entered the normalization phase.
At a joint press conference held after the summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that day, President Yoon said, “If the announcement of the (conscription) solution normalizes and develops bilateral relations, it will greatly help both countries respond to security crises. He declared the complete normalization of GSOMIA. It is reported that President Yoon first mentioned the issue of normalizing GSOMIA, which had not been discussed in advance between the two countries at the time of the summit. According to a diplomatic source, President Yoon said, “I will quickly follow legal procedures,” and Prime Minister Kishida nodded.
The normalization of GSOMIA that President Yoon mentioned on this day is to remove the ‘conditional’ label from GSOMIA, which is currently in a ‘conditional termination postponement’ after the 2019 termination wave. Military information of the two countries, such as North Korean missile information, is still shared through GSOMIA, but the legal status of the agreement is incomplete.
Regarding North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that day, the two leaders also reiterated the importance of cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, and South Korea and Japan. Referring to the normalization of GSOMIA, President Yoon also said, “I think it is necessary to allow the two countries to share information on the launch and trajectory of North Korean nuclear weapons and missiles and to allow dialogue.” He emphasized that real-time information sharing on missiles mentioned by the leaders of Korea, the U.S. and Japan last year should be introduced as soon as possible.
President Yoon also said that the governments of Korea and Japan have decided to promote cooperation in various fields such as security, economy, people-to-people exchanges, cutting-edge science, and finance and foreign exchange. We look forward to continuing communication through the consultative body.” The highest-level economic security consultative body will be set up between Korea and Japan to strengthen the semiconductor supply chain. Prime Minister Kishida explained, “We also agreed on the necessity of early resuming the Korea-Japan security dialogue and the loan-ministerial strategic dialogue, which had been suspended for a long time, and the early resumption of the high-level Korea-China-Japan process.”
Both Korea and Japan will complete all procedures within this month at the latest through Japan’s lifting of export restrictions on three items essential for semiconductor processing, namely hydrogen fluoride, fluorinated polyimide, and photoresist, and the withdrawal of the Korean government’s WTO complaint, through institutional changes in each country. decided to finish
When the export restrictions are lifted, the documents that Japanese companies need to prepare when exporting the three items to Korea will be simplified, and the Japanese government’s permission period will be shortened. For Korean companies, uncertainty about the import of the three items will be greatly reduced. Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang said on the same day, “It is not just about lifting export restrictions, but the first step in building trust.” However, regarding Japan’s measures to exclude South Korea from the whitelist, it was decided to discuss so that the two countries can recover as soon as possible.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.