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“The 2 international locations have a shared evaluation that a lot of the knowledge disclosed is altered,” Deputy Nationwide Safety Adviser Kim Tae-hyo mentioned Tuesday earlier than leaving for Washington to organize for a state go to between the American and South Korean presidents later this month.
In a separate assertion, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s workplace mentioned “the allegations of an eavesdropping breach are fully unfaithful” and mentioned it was “requesting an acceptable response from the U.S.” in regards to the leak.
The Biden administration is scrambling to comprise the fallout from the leak of labeled U.S. navy paperwork, which present what it thinks about international locations the world over and comprise allegations of spying on its allies.
The paperwork, seen by The Washington Submit, confirmed Yoon’s high aides expressing hesitancy over supplying the US with ammunition that Washington may divert to Ukraine.
South Korea’s Nationwide Safety Council “was mired in considerations that the U.S. wouldn’t be the tip consumer if South Korea had been to adjust to a U.S. request for ammunition,” Yoon’s former secretary for overseas affairs, Yi Mun-hui, was quoted as saying final month.
South Korean regulation prohibits it from supplying weapons to international locations engaged in battle, making it not possible to supply deadly weapons to Ukraine with out a legislative change.
Cautious of damaging its commerce relations with Russia, the Yoon administration has maintained it won’t achieve this, regardless of rising calls from Kyiv and NATO allies.
Including to the push, President Biden was anticipated to name his South Korean counterpart on to demand arms provide, in accordance with Yi within the paperwork, who “confused that South Korea was not ready to have a name between the heads of state with out having a transparent place on the problem.”
Yi’s boss, former nationwide safety adviser Kim Sung-han, feared {that a} reversal in Seoul’s stance on Ukraine support could possibly be seen as a commerce with the US forward of Yoon’s go to to Washington this month. These inner discussions — attributed to U.S. indicators intelligence, which refers to technical means reminiscent of communications intercepts — are logged within the leaked paperwork.
The 2 senior Korean officers, Kim and Yi, abruptly stepped down from their positions final month.
When requested whether or not ammunition bought from South Korea could possibly be despatched to Ukraine, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh declined to provide specifics. “We, after all, have shares all all over the world that we are able to pull from and select to make use of and transfer after we resolve to,” she mentioned at a media briefing final week.
The South Korean Protection Ministry mentioned Tuesday that its place on deadly support to Ukraine stays unchanged whatever the leak. Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin “supplied clarification on the reported leak of U.S. navy secrets and techniques” in a name along with his South Korean counterpart, in accordance with a readout from Seoul. The readout didn’t present additional particulars about their dialog.
Critics in South Korea known as for a greater response from the Yoon and Biden administrations to deal with the fallout from the leak.
“The (Yoon) authorities ought to clarify the case completely to the South Korean public and lodge a powerful protest in opposition to our ally,” mentioned Park Hong-keun, ground chief of the primary opposition Democratic Celebration. He known as the leak a “diplomatic humiliation” and criticized Yoon as displaying “spineless” passivity towards the US.
In an editorial on Tuesday, South Korea’s largest newspaper, the right-leaning Chosun Ilbo, urged the nation to “reinforce our personal spying capacities” in mild of the leak. “There isn’t any such factor as an ally on this intelligence conflict,” the paper mentioned, referring to Washington’s record of spying on its allies.
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