ROK looks into botched military pact with Japan

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea's government is looking into the mismanagement of what would have been the first military pact with Japan since the end of the 1910-45 Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, local media reported Wednesday.

The plan to sign the accord, called the General Security of Military Information Agreement, was scrapped in a last- minute decision by the foreign ministry on Friday due to public outcry over the secretive nature of the Cabinet endorsement of the deal.

The accord, if signed, would have allowed the two sides to exchange military intelligence on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and its nuclear and missile programs.

Facing a public backlash, President Lee Myung-bak and his aides, the foreign ministry and the defense ministry here have blamed one another for the hush-hush deal that critics say would raise military tension in the region.

The ongoing government wide probe is led by the presidential office, according to Yonhap News Agency. In a country where the anti-Japan sentiment still runs deep, sharing military intelligence with the former colonizer remains somewhat of a taboo.

Seoul and Tokyo still remain at odds over various historical issues, including the persistent territorial disputes over a set of islets and Korean women who were forced into sex slavery during the World War II.

The two Asian powers have pushed for military agreements since 2011, but opposition lawmakers and progressive civic activists have strongly resisted what they said would be a boon for Japanese right-wing extremists.

Such criticism pressured the ROK's government last month into suspending the signing of a separate military agreement with Japan, called the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement.

The deal, if signed, would have allowed exchanges of supplies including fuel and weapons between the ROK's military and Japan's Self-Defense Forces.