By Chang Dong-woo and Lee Yu-mi
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (Yonhap) — A senior U.S. official mentioned Friday that Washington expects Seoul to “uphold” the requirements of their decadeslong alliance, amid heightened considerations over obvious friction within the nations’ intelligence cooperation.
“We count on the ROK to uphold the requirements of our decadeslong alliance, particularly regarding issues of intelligence and counterintelligence,” the senior U.S. administration official informed Yonhap Information Company in a written assertion, referring to South Korea’s official title, the Republic of Korea.
The assertion was supplied in response to an inquiry from Yonhap Information Company concerning the state of bilateral intelligence cooperation.
The remarks comply with rising hypothesis over bilateral friction after South Korea’s Nationwide Intelligence Service acknowledged it was excluded from a June trilateral assembly, additionally involving Japan, on North Korean cyber threats. Native media studies indicated the company was disregarded at Washington’s request.
South Korea and america have confronted indicators of friction within the intelligence area after Seoul Unification Minister Chung Dong-young’s public disclosure of a North Korean uranium enrichment facility in Kusong, North Korea in March.
Whereas Chung has mentioned he solely shared what was already within the public area, the transfer seems to have prompted Washington to limit Seoul’s entry to some intelligence associated to North Korea in obvious protest over the disclosure.
The pressure in bilateral relations was additionally obvious in a delayed issuance of a U.S. visa for Rep. Jung Chung-rae, former chief of South Korea’s ruling Democratic Occasion. Jung had deliberate to go to america for a parliamentary audit of Seoul’s diplomatic missions.
Jung addressed the difficulty in a Fb put up, noting that his U.S. visa is beneath assessment and asking others to chorus from remarks that would hurt the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
South Korean Nationwide Intelligence Service Director Lee Jong-seok leaves the Nationwide Meeting in Seoul after attending a plenary session of the parliamentary intelligence committee on Sept. 30, 2026. (Pool photograph) (Yonhap)
odissy@yna.co.kr
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