Published on August 10, 2019. This article introduces an interview in the Sankei Shimbun with former Vice Admiral Ito Toshiyuki. It discusses the folly of South Korea suggesting termination of the Japan–South Korea GSOMIA as a countermeasure against Japan, the importance of Japan Self-Defense Forces radar information on North Korean missiles, and the disadvantages South Korea would face if the agreement were scrapped.

2019-08-10
The people most troubled now by the stance of the Moon Jae-in administration are probably senior officers of the South Korean military.
That is because, while North Korea repeatedly launches missiles, information on their trajectories and impact points depends largely on the radar of the Self-Defense Forces.
The following is from an interview with former Vice Admiral Ito Toshiyuki, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title “The Impact of Scrapping the Japan–South Korea GSOMIA: The Folly of Making It a Card against Japan.”
It is also an article that proves the intractability of South Korea, a country of “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies.”
It is also an article that makes us recognize again the reality of South Korea taught by an essay titled “Why Are Koreans Liars?” by Nishioka Tsutomu, one of the world’s foremost scholars knowledgeable about the Korean Peninsula, published in this month’s issue of WiLL.
… Quoted portion from the book by Professor Lee Song-hoon.
Opening omitted.
“The fact that the people of this country have made lies part of everyday life, and that the politicians of this country use lies as a means of political struggle, is the greatest responsibility of this country’s lying scholarship.
As I see it, the history and sociology of this country are hotbeds of lies.
The universities of this country are factories for manufacturing lies.
I can pride myself that saying so is not a great mistake.
It has been that way since roughly the 1960s, so sixty years have already passed in such a way.
That is why, upon entering the 2000s, all the people and all the politicians came to lie calmly.”
He then lists the lies in South Korean historical scholarship, his own field of specialization.
“If one were to list what kinds of lies South Korean historical scholarship has told from ancient history to modern history, there would be no end to it.
The lies run rampant mainly in relation to the history of Japan’s rule over this land beginning in the twentieth century.
I will list only a few that I refuted in this book.
The textbook description that the Government-General confiscated 40 percent of all land in the country as state-owned land through the land survey project was a nonsensical fiction.
The textbook claim that rice from colonial Korea was shipped out to Japan was the product of ignorance.
The claim that Imperial Japan mobilized Koreans as laborers during wartime and cruelly exploited them as slaves was a malicious fabrication.
The march of lies reached its climax with the issue of the Japanese military comfort women.
The common belief that military police and police abducted virgins by the roadside or took women from washing places and dragged them to comfort stations was a complete lie for which not a single case has been found.”
After criticizing historical scholarship this far, he then thoroughly criticizes last October’s Supreme Court ruling on compensation for wartime laborers, saying that the lies have spread even to the courts.
“For sixty years now, lying scholarship has written lying history and taught it to the younger generation.
Since the generation that grew up receiving that education has finally become Supreme Court justices, it is not so strange that the judiciary of this country conducts lying trials.”
Remainder omitted.
The underlining in the following article is mine.
South Korea suggests scrapping the General Security of Military Information Agreement, GSOMIA, between Japan and South Korea, whose renewal deadline comes on the 24th of this month, as a countermeasure against Japan’s tightening of export controls.
What would be the impact on Japan if it were scrapped?
We asked Ito Toshiyuki, former Vice Admiral and professor at Kanazawa Institute of Technology’s Toranomon Graduate School, who served as an intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Headquarters of the Ministry of Defense and is familiar with information-sharing among the militaries of various countries.
Related article on page 2.
The GSOMIA concluded in 2016 had once had its signing postponed in 2012 because of the deterioration of Japan–South Korea relations.
South Korea’s current moves, as at that time, are merely using it politically and diplomatically.
However, the benefits of GSOMIA are greater for the South Korean side, and making it a card against Japan is foolish.
The people most troubled now by the stance of the Moon Jae-in administration are probably senior officers of the South Korean military.
That is because, while North Korea repeatedly launches missiles, information on their trajectories and impact points depends largely on the radar of the Self-Defense Forces.
The short-range ballistic missiles being tested by North Korea are said to be a new type modeled on the Russian-made Iskander, which flies on a complex trajectory, and impact information is extremely valuable.
Conversely, the information Japan obtains from South Korea is limited to human intelligence, such as information on launch sites and signs, and the United States also grasps similar information, so even without GSOMIA, there are almost no disadvantages for Japan.
In the first place, GSOMIA does not determine the content of the information to be shared; it is an arrangement to protect the shared information and prevent leakage to third countries.
When I was engaged in intelligence-related duties, it was before the conclusion of GSOMIA, but the South Korean military side, wanting information from the Self-Defense Forces, repeatedly sought its conclusion.
If there is any obstacle caused by scrapping GSOMIA, it would be information-sharing through the Japan–U.S.–South Korea triangle.
When the U.S. military passes Self-Defense Forces information to the South Korean military, or South Korean military information to the Self-Defense Forces, it must conceal the classified portions, which requires enormous effort.
If South Korea actually moves to scrap it, the United States will strongly oppose it.
Interviewer: Kano Hiroyuki.
● General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA): An agreement concluded between countries or organizations when they provide one another with military classified information, in order to prevent leakage of information to third countries.
GSOMIA is the abbreviation of “General Security of Military Information Agreement.”
Japan has concluded similar agreements with the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), France, Australia, and others.
It concluded one with South Korea in November 2016.
Its term is one year, and it is automatically renewed every year unless either side gives written notice of its intention to terminate it ninety days in advance.
If it is to be scrapped, the notice deadline is the 24th of this month.
＊Needless to say, NHK does not report at all that the reality is what is described in this article, and reports only as if Japan would somehow be troubled by it.
It is no exaggeration at all to say that the sight of NHK employees reporting with an attitude as if they were journalists and allies of justice is one of the curiosities of the world.