SEOUL: The United States has partly restricted the sharing of satellite intelligence on North Korea with South Korea due to recent remarks by Seoul\u2019s unification minister about one of Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear facilities, reports said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Chung Dong-young told South Korea\u2019s parliament last month that North Korea was suspected to operate a site for enriching uranium \u2014 a key step in making a nuclear bomb \u2014 in the northwestern Kusong region.<\/p>\n
Washington, South Korea\u2019s security ally, lodged protests over Chung\u2019s comments, saying they disclosed sensitive information from US intelligence without authorization, according to the South\u2019s Yonhap news agency and multiple local outlets.<\/p>\n
It has \u201climited\u201d some satellite information on the North that was previously routinely handed over to Seoul, the reports said.<\/p>\n
The restrictions have applied \u201csince the beginning of this month\u201d but \u201c(do) not significantly affect military preparedness,\u201d an unnamed South Korean military official was quoted as saying by Yonhap on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIntelligence collection and sharing regarding North Korea\u2019s military activities are proceeding normally between South Korean and US authorities, just as before,\u201d the official reportedly said.<\/p>\n
Seoul\u2019s unification and defense ministries declined to comment on the reported restrictions. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for confirmation.<\/p>\n
North Korea is known to operate uranium enrichment facilities in Yongbyon, in the north, and Kangson, near the capital Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
Chung has come under pressure from opposition parties over the disclosure and its repercussions for ties with Washington.<\/p>\n
He said on Monday it was \u201cdeeply regrettable\u201d that his remarks had been interpreted as a leak of classified information, insisting that they were based on publicly available information and had been raised at his confirmation hearing in July.<\/p>\n
President Lee Jae Myung has defended Chung, writing on X that it is a \u201cclear fact\u201d the existence of the Kusong facility was already widely known through academic papers and media reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny claims or actions premised on the assumption that Minister Chung leaked classified information provided by the United States are wrong,\u201d Lee added.<\/p>\n
North Korea is subject to multiple United Nations sanctions banning its nuclear weapons development and use of ballistic missile technology, restrictions it has repeatedly flouted.<\/p>\n
Pyongyang is showing a \u201cvery serious increase\u201d in its ability to produce atomic weapons, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said during a visit to Seoul last week.<\/p>\n
The United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to help it fend off military threats from the North.<\/p>\n
It is believed to gather intelligence through satellites, electronic intercepts and other means, and share it with Seoul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL: The United States has partly restricted the sharing of satellite intelligence on North Korea with South Korea due to recent remarks by Seoul\u2019s unification minister about one of Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear facilities, reports said on Tuesday. Chung Dong-young told South Korea\u2019s parliament last month that North Korea was suspected to operate a site for enriching …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":96659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96660,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96647\/revisions\/96660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}