BEIJING, December 29. /TASS/. China hopes that the agreement of the United States, South Korea and Japan on exchanging classified information on Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear threats will not destabilize the situation on the Korean Peninsula, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told TASS on Monday.
“We see that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is unstable. We hope that the sides will make more effort to strengthen mutual confidence and will not take actions destabilizing the situation,” Chunying said, urging the parties to do everything possible to maintain peace and stability in the region.
The agreement between the three countries — the US, South Korea and Japan — entered into force on Monday. The cooperation will be carried out through the United States, which maintains separate bilateral military agreements on sharing intelligence information with both South Korea and Japan.
Information will be shared in various forms such as documents, photos and digital electronic data. This will allow for “a more effective response to future provocations” from North Korea and also advance the security of the three signatories, the US Department of Defense said.
North Korea carried out three underground nuclear tests from 2006 to February 2013. In addition, Pyongyang has launched a total of 111 missiles this year.
The signing of the pact comes two years after a similar bilateral information-sharing agreement between Seoul and Tokyo was ruptured due to fierce criticism in the South Korean society that remembers the Japanese military crimes committed during World War II.