South Korea decided to extend an important military information sharing agreement with Japan, hours before the end of this treaty tonight.

"The Military Intelligence Sharing Agreement (GSOMIA) will not be withdrawn tonight. The Japanese government has expressed their understanding," said the deputy director of the National Security Office of the Presidential Palace. South Korea Kim You-geun said during a press conference on November 22 at the Blue House, Seoul.

South Korea and Japan signed a GSOMIA agreement in November 2016, allowing two U.S. allies in Northeast Asia to share military secrets, especially about North Korea's nuclear capabilities. The South Korean government previously announced it would not extend GSOMIA after it expired on November 23, despite strong protests from the US and Japan.

South Korea is said to be under pressure from the US to maintain the GSOMIA agreement with Japan. Kim You-geun said the suspension of the GSOMIA agreement was "still terminated at any time".

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said GSOMIA was an important treaty and Korea made a decision to maintain it "from a strategic point of view of the security situation in the region today". Motegi said Japanese diplomats were preparing to hold bilateral talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Nagoya.

Relations between Korea and Japan were heavily influenced by the Japanese Empire's occupation history on the Korean peninsula in 1910-1945. The disagreement over the history escalated into a commercial dispute when the Korean court ruled in November 2018 asking Japanese companies to compensate victims of exploitation during the Korean Peninsula. address of Japan.

Japan decided to restrict the export of high-tech materials and removed the Korean name from the list of maximum trade restriction exemptions. South Korea accuses Japan of using its goodwill to respond to a court ruling.