U.S. Expects South Korea to Uphold Alliance Standards Amid Intelligence Cooperation Concerns, Senior Official Says

The official told Yonhap News Agency in a written statement, "We expect the ROK to uphold the standards of our decadeslong alliance, in particular concerning matters of intelligence and counterintelligence." The statement referred to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea. It was provided in response to a Yonhap News Agency inquiry about the state of bilateral intelligence cooperation.

The remarks followed growing speculation about friction after South Korea's National Intelligence Service acknowledged it was excluded from a June trilateral meeting on North Korean cyber threats that also involved Japan. Local media reports indicated the agency was left out at Washington's request.

Friction in the intelligence field also emerged after South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young publicly disclosed a North Korean uranium enrichment facility in Kusong, North Korea, in March. Chung has said he only shared information that was already in the public domain. The disclosure appears to have prompted Washington to restrict Seoul's access to some intelligence related to North Korea, in an apparent protest over the disclosure.

The strain in bilateral relations was also visible in a delayed issuance of a U.S. visa for South Korean Rep. Jung Chung-rae, former leader of the ruling Democratic Party. Jung had planned to visit the United States for a parliamentary audit of Seoul's diplomatic missions.

Jung addressed the issue in a Facebook post, noting that his U.S. visa is under review and asking others to refrain from remarks that could harm the South Korea-U.S. alliance.