SEOUL, Dec. 18 -- South Korea, Japan and the United States have made a significant progress in talks about sharing military intelligence of the three countries to better deal with what they claimed were nuclear and missile threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday.

The unnamed official from Seoul's Defense Ministry was quoted as saying that working-level discussions are under way for an memorandum of understanding (MOU) on sharing military intelligence between the three nations, noting that"significant progress"has been made.

The official said a final conclusion has yet to be reached, adding that the conclusion will be made public when it matures. Another official said it would be hard to predict whether the MOU can be signed within this year.

Defense ministers of the three countries met in May in Singapore, agreeing to launch a working-level discussion on the issue. Defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States confirmed the need for intelligence sharing in October in Washington.

Seoul and Tokyo pushed for the bilateral pact to share military intelligence on the DPRK in June 2012, but South Korea put the pact on hold at the last minute amid public uproar at home.

At that time, the Lee Myung-bak administration pushed the pact through without enough public debate for fear of possible opposition from the public.

Amid frayed ties between Seoul and Tokyo, South Korea set its basic policy at turning to the trilateral intelligence-sharing. Military intelligence pacts were reached between Washington and Seoul and between Washington and Tokyo, but not between Seoul and Tokyo.

The South Korean Defense Ministry has said that the trilateral pact would be limited to the DPRK's nuclear and missile threats, unlike the previously pushed-for bilateral pact between Seoul and Tokyo covering a broader range of intelligence exchanges.