http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/world/asia/japan-south-korea-north-intelligence.html 2014-12-29 16:18:57 Japan and South Korea Pledge to Share Intelligence on North via U.S. Under the pact, the sharing of classified information will be limited to North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs. === SEOUL, South Korea — Defense analysts called the agreement a small but symbolic breakthrough because it brought together Japan and South Korea, two prosperous democracies that have been divided by emotional disputes over history and territory. The difficulties of bridging their differences were evident in the narrow scope of the pact, which was not a legally binding treaty but a memorandum of understanding. Under the pact, the sharing of classified information will be limited to Still, analysts said the fact that the memorandum was signed at all represented a possible warming of the relations between the two nations. They said that while Japan had always been more open to signing such an agreement, South Korea had to overcome deep distrust about Japan to sign the deal. “This small success could be an important turning point,” said Nam Chang-hee, an expert on Japan-Korea military relations at Inha University in Incheon, South Korea. “It could build Korean public confidence in Japan, which shares the same North Korean threat.” The last time Japan and South Korea tried to sign an intelligence-sharing agreement, two years ago, Relations have deteriorated recently as the two nations’ leaders have failed to see eye to eye on delicate historical issues, such as Japan’s culpability for forcing women from Korea and elsewhere to work in wartime military brothels. While President Park Geun-hye of South Korea has shown a personal interest in attaining redress for these so-called comfort women, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has expressed doubts about the extent to which the women were coerced. Officials said that the signing of Monday’s memorandum of understanding reflected a renewed appreciation of North Korea’s ability to threaten its neighbors not only with missiles and nuclear weapons, but also by less conventional means such as cyberattacks. The “For Japan, the United States and Korea, how to deal with the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons and missiles is a shared security concern,” Gen Nakatani, Japan’s defense minister, said. “This memorandum of understanding is meaningful because it improves the national security of the three nations.” Defense analysts said Monday’s deal was only possible because of the central role played by the United States, which is trusted by both sides and which stations tens of thousands of military personnel in Japan and South Korea. The United States did not play a direct role in the deal that fell through two years ago, which was to be a bilateral pact between Japan and South Korea. The new American role comes after years of efforts by the Obama administration to press its two closest allies in the region to reconcile and present a united front in coping with the North. Defense analysts said that Japan and South Korea had much to offer each other in intelligence sharing: Japan has advanced electronic spying capabilities via its aircraft and satellites, while the South has better on-the-ground human intelligence. Still, defense analysts also said there were limits to how far the countries could work together. Mr. Nam said the Koreans wanted to explicitly limit the pact to North Korea because of differences in how the two countries perceive another neighbor, China. He said that while Japan had been locked in a heated contest with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea, South Korea was eager not to be seen as taking sides against the Chinese, with whom it has good relations. “This agreement is limited so as not to send the wrong signal to China,” Mr. Nam said. “The Koreans want to make it clear that this is aimed at North Korea, not China.”