South Korea, Japan and U.S. to Sign Intelligence Pact

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/world/asia/south-korea-japan-and-us-to-sign-intelligence-pact.html

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South Korea, the United States and Japan will sign their first joint intelligence-sharing pact next week to better cope with North Korea’s increasing nuclear and missile threats, officials said Friday. The United States has separate, bilateral intelligence-sharing agreements with South Korea and Japan. But South Korea and Japan do not have such bilateral pacts, partly a result of long-running disputes stemming from Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Under the initiative, South Korea and Japan would share intelligence through the United States only on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, according to a statement from South Korea’s Defense Ministry. The use of Japanese intelligence assets would increase surveillance on North Korea, it said.