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South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono in Bangkok on Nov. 17, during the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus. (Yonhap News)

South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said that the US is putting major pressure on both South Korea and Japan to maintain their General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). Jeong made the remarks during a press conference on Nov. 17 at the Avani Plus Riverside Hotel, in Bangkok, during the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus. He was responding to a reporter’s question on how the US was responding to South Korea’s plans to terminate GSOMIA, while noting predictions that ending the agreement would have severe ramifications for South Korea-US relations.

“GSOMIA has had a lot of symbolic and strategic value for the South Korea-US alliance, and the Americans certainly think so. [The Americans] are putting pressure on the Japanese, too, and they’re also asking us to maintain GSOMIA,” Jeong said.

“The US is exerting strong [pressure] because of the importance of maintaining trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan. That [pressure] isn’t only on us; it’s coming down hard on Japan as well,” the defense minister added.

“What I’m told is that the US has kept sending messages to Japan. When [the meeting of top defense officials from South Korea, the US, and Japan] was wrapping up, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper asked both me and my Japanese counterpart to help persuade our governments to keep GSOMIA in place,” Jeong said.

Esper reportedly made his request after Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono and Jeong communicated the respective positions of Tokyo and Seoul on GSOMIA toward the end of the meeting.

When asked whether Japan had changed its position in its bilateral meeting with South Korea or in its trilateral defense meetings with South Korea and the US, Jeong said, “At any rate, I didn’t hear a satisfying response [from Kono]. It’s safe to say we remain at odds [on the GSOMIA issue].”

“In reality, GSOMIA is the sort of issue that needs to be resolved by the two governments, rather than solely by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense. As such, I understand that diplomats are holding a lot of off-the-record talks as well. And so both Kono and I expressed our hopes that those [diplomatic talks] would go well,” the defense minister added.

When asked if he thought that GSOMIA would terminate unless a breakthrough is reached in high-level talks,” Jeong said, “That would be unfortunate, and I hope it doesn’t happen, but based on current developments, I don’t see any major changes. We’re making a great effort on the diplomatic front, so let’s wait and see what happens.”

Jeong also spoke about South Korea and the US’ decision to postpone the joint air exercise that had been scheduled for this month. “We were planning to kick off the exercise on Nov. 18, with South Korea and the US doing drills separately for the most part and only teaming up when necessary. But since North Korea was holding a military air show, we figured it would be appropriate to put off the exercise a little, which is how we reached [the decision to postpone the exercise],” Jeong said.

“Considering that this an extremely important time for diplomatic efforts to keep North Korea on track for denuclearization, we decided on postponement, with the hope of supporting those efforts. There was also a lot of discussion about this during the Security Consultative Meeting [in Seoul on Nov. 15],” he added.

“We’ve completed most of the exercises that we scaled down this year. The only exercises left before the end of the year are extremely small and not widely publicized,” Jeong said.

“We don’t believe that those exercises will cause much of a problem before the end of the year. The South Korean Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines have finished most of this year’s joint exercises with their American counterparts,” he added.

“It’s safe to assume that postponement means that those exercises can be resumed at any time. It’s not a big deal for the Americans to conduct exercises their way and for us to do them our way.”

By Yoo Kang-moon, senior staff writer

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