The ministry highlighted that Seoul and Washington agreed on the importance of strengthening exchange and cooperation for diplomatic intelligence due to rapidly-changing geopolitical situations. The two countries have been working closely on this matter since early this year.
The MOU signing took place in Washington on Monday (local time), with Park Jang-ho, the ministry's director-general for diplomatic intelligence, and Brett Holmgren, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, in attendance.
The ministry said that the MOU will provide a framework for exchanging diplomatic intelligence analysis and technology with the U.S.
Before the signing, South Korea's first vice foreign minister Kim Hong-kyun spoke with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell in a telephone conference on Monday. They discussed current diplomatic issues, including a new defense pact between Moscow and Pyongyang forged last week.
The ministry here said that Campbell expressed "grave concern" over the strengthened military ties between Russia and North Korea and "strongly condemned" them.
Later in the day, Campbell also said during a forum hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, "The United States is quite focused on underscoring the strength of our extended deterrence commitments to the countries of Northeast Asia, Japan and South Korea in particular."
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