Japan's defense minister hopes for "smoother" sharing of military intelligence with S. Korea

TOKYO, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said Tuesday he expected a key military pact made with South Korea on sharing information between them would become smoother under South Korea's new administration.

"I hope there will be exchanges between the two sides toward smoother operation of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA)," Kishi said.

Kishi's remarks came after South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin told a press briefing in Washington that the South Korean side wants the pact to be normalized along with the improvement of bilateral ties.

Japan and South Korea do not have a formal military alliance, however, GSOMIA allows both sides to share sensitive military intelligence.

Japan and South Korea have struggled to maintain healthy political ties for a number of years during the former administrations of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korea's Moon Jae-In.

The two sides had been at odds over a myriad of issues including those pertaining to wartime labor and trade disputes.

The termination of GSOMIA was narrowly avoided in the last 11th hour during the disputes between Tokyo and Seoul, with the latter allowing the pact not to expire prior to saying it had decided to cancel it.

The military intelligence-sharing accord was signed between both countries in November 2016.

The accord comes up for renewal each year, but can be canceled by either party giving the requisite amount of notice.