SEOUL: South Korea’s ambassador to the United States said Washington had raised concerns about intelligence cooperation between the allies and that Seoul had not yet fully addressed US expectations, Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday.
Ambassador Kang Kyung-wha told a South Korean parliamentary audit in Washington that intelligence sharing was the most difficult issue in bilateral relations, according to Yonhap.
Here are some details from the report and background:
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised the matter during talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun last month, Kang said.
Kang did not detail Washington’s concerns, but said communication between the two countries’ intelligence agencies was continuing and had made progress.
The ambassador also said access to senior White House officials had been limited, according to the report.
South Korea’s foreign ministry did not immediately have a response to a Reuters request for comment on the report.
South Korean media have reported that Washington asked that Seoul’s National Intelligence Service be excluded from a June meeting with US and Japanese officials on North Korean cyber threats.
Seoul’s spy agency said the matter reflected a past misunderstanding and had been resolved, acknowledging restrictions on some intelligence connected to the earlier dispute but denying reports that the US had reduced sharing of North Korean missile information or cut the overall flow of intelligence.
Kang said Seoul and Washington were discussing ways to secure South Korean rights to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel, either through revising their civil nuclear agreement or an additional arrangement.
No progress had been made towards a summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, despite Trump signalling openness to dialogue, Kang said.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that Seoul should avoid subservient attitudes in dealings with other countries.
Lee called the US alliance a central pillar of South Korean diplomacy which should be further developed, while adding differences between countries were inevitable and should be managed through discussion and coordination.