US presses Seoul on intelligence standards as North Korea sharing reportedly narrows to missiles

A senior US administration official said on 9 October that Washington expects South Korea to uphold the standards of the two countries' decades-long alliance, in particular on matters of intelligence and counterintelligence, Yonhap News Agency reported. The written statement was given in reply to questions about the state of intelligence cooperation between the allies, and similar responses went to other South Korean outlets.

The official did not say which standards were meant or whether Washington believes Seoul has breached them. A State Department official separately told Voice of America that the United States expects all allies to handle intelligence and counterintelligence matters appropriately, in answer to questions about reports that Washington had asked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service to be kept out of a trilateral meeting, according to The Herald Business.

Sharing reportedly narrowed to missiles

On 10 October SBS reported, citing a key South Korean military official, that US intelligence on North Korea now reaching the South Korean military covers only missiles: signs of activity before a launch and, afterwards, a missile's altitude, range and speed. Sharing used to range from North Korea's nuclear weapons, missiles and conventional forces and its troops' part in the war in Ukraine to the latest moves of Kim Jong Un's leadership and China-Russia ties, the broadcaster said.

Because missile data is shared under trilateral security cooperation with Japan that Washington cannot halt on its own, analysts told SBS that the limit amounted to US intelligence sharing on the North being effectively blocked. A senior South Korean government official acknowledged that the total volume of US intelligence on North Korea had fallen, but blamed the Russia-Ukraine war and the US war with Iran for drawing US reconnaissance satellites and human intelligence away, and said the friction between the allies was not the main cause.

Gen. Jin Yong-sung, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a National Assembly audit on 8 October that some intelligence sharing remained restricted and had not been fully restored. He said information needed to respond to imminent North Korean nuclear and missile threats was still flowing and that the military's overall readiness was unaffected.

Roots of the dispute

The friction dates to March, when Unification Minister Chung Dong-young named Kusong in North Pyongan province, along with Yongbyon and Kangson, as a site of North Korean uranium enrichment during a parliamentary committee session. The United States began withholding some satellite-collected intelligence on North Korea in early April, which military authorities confirmed on 21 April, The Herald Business reported.

Chung has said he drew only on public material. National Security Office Director Wi Sung-lac acknowledged on 23 April that the Kusong information was combined classified material under the alliance, while maintaining that Chung had not leaked US intelligence. The allies exchange classified information under a military secrets protection agreement signed in 1987.

The National Intelligence Service has acknowledged that it was excluded at Washington's request from the fifth working-level meeting of South Korea, the United States and Japan on countering North Korean cyber threats, held in Washington on 25 and 26 June, the first time it had been left out since the group began in December 2023. The agency said on 8 October that there had been some misunderstanding months ago but that none now exists between the two countries' intelligence authorities.