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S. Korea, Japan to collaborate on N. Korean intelligence

The agreement will be signed Monday.

By Ed Adamczyk
North Korean missile on parade, in a photo displayed at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing. UPI/Stephen Shaver
North Korean missile on parade, in a photo displayed at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing. UPI/Stephen Shaver | License Photo

SEOUL, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- An intelligence-sharing pact, targeting North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, has been agreed upon by South Korea and Japan.

The two countries, which have never before had such an agreement, will join the United States in a trilateral deal. The formal signing will occur Monday, South Korean officials said, adding the agreement will allow the three parties to respond more quickly to North Korean provocation.

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The United States has separate intelligence-sharing pacts with the two countries.

Relations between Japan and South Korea are currently strained over historical issues and competing claims for islands, known as Takeshima in Japan and called Dokdo in South Korea, but the intelligence agreement comes at a time of mutually tense relations with North Korea. A similar agreement, which failed two years ago, would have included sharing of information on China.

"It's symbolically important," Robert Dujarric of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University's Japan Campus told Bloomberg News. "We disagree on history, we disagree on Dokdo, but we can work together and this is a message to North Korea and China."

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