SEOUL (AFP) — South Korea and Japan plan to sign their first comprehensive agreement on military cooperation, the defence ministry said Monday, in another sign of warming ties between the two historic enemies.
The two countries "are pushing to sign a comprehensive agreement on military cooperation," a ministry spokesman told AFP.
"Bilateral military cooperation so far has been on a much smaller and irregular basis," the spokesman said.
"No details have yet been fixed and there is no concrete date yet for signing it."
Such an agreement would be the first since Japan's colonial rule over the Korean peninsula ended in 1945 after 35 years.
Yonhap news agency said it was likely to be signed during a visit by Japan's Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba sometime this year.
It quoted ministry officials as saying Tokyo proposed signing such a pact in 2005. But Seoul opposed the move, amid tensions over Tokyo's claim to disputed islands known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan.
Relations at the time also soured over what Seoul saw as Tokyo's attempts to whitewash its atrocities during its colonial rule.
Officials said the agreement outlines general rules on cooperation and personnel exchanges, along with regular joint search-and-rescue naval exercises.
South Korea's new President Lee Myung-Bak held a summit in Tokyo last week with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, at which Lee pledged to seek better ties untainted by bitter historical memories.
Any military cooperation deal would be eyed suspiciously by North Korea, which accuses Tokyo of still harbouring designs over the Korean peninsula.
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