Amid soured bilateral ties, Japan is making final arrangements with South Korea for their defense ministers to hold talks in mid-November on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Thailand, a government source said Monday.
If realized, the meeting between Defense Minister Taro Kono and his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Kyeong-doo, will come ahead of the expiration of a military intelligence-sharing pact between Tokyo and Seoul on Nov. 23.
Kono is expected to demand that South Korea retract its decision not to renew the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) during the bilateral meeting, according to the source at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo.