청와대 3실장, "지소미아, 국익 관점에서 종합적 판단해야" 일본 "금융시장 공격 가능성 낮다"
President Moon's top advisors say South Korea is carefully reviewing whether or not to renew a military information-sharing pact with Japan known as the General Security of Military Information Agreement, or GSOMIA.
They also played down speculations that Japan will target South Korea's financial market as part of its retaliatory measures.
Here's Arirang's chief political correspondent, Shin Se-min.
Presidential chief of staff Noh Young-min said the issue of whether or not to scrap the military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan should be considered carefully.
"It is both a diplomatic and a military issue. We will have to take the Korean people's sentiment into consideration, but ultimately it's a matter that needs to be judged comprehensively in view of the national interest."
Fielding questions from all political parties in a plenary meeting Tuesday of the National Assembly's House Steering Committee,... the presidential chief of staff said nothing has been decided yet.
When asked whether Seoul has been requested by Washington to refrain from withdrawing from GSOMIA,... Noh said it hasn't been, officially.
He added that the government will take steps against Japan's decision to remove South Korea from its list of trusted importers,... and reiterated the president's confidence that the country will turn the situation into an opportunity to improve the economy so that it is not swayed by what he called "technological hegemony."
Despite South Korean stocks taking a beating two sessions in a row this week over the Japan situation among other pending issues,... the presidential chief of staff for policy Kim Sang-jo remained optimistic.
He said there was little chance that Japan might target Korea's financial market as a form of additional economic retaliation.
"Compared to the IMF crisis 20 years ago, our financial sector and its fundamentals are very different,... so the possibility of that is extremely low. "
He added that a fallback plan is in the works, just in case,... and that the government is also keeping close tabs on short-term market instability.
Kim said the expected impact of the economic row with Japan on Korea's GDP will be less than one-tenth of a percent and downplayed a forecast made by the Korea Economic Research Institute that projected Korea's GDP to drop nearly 4-and-a-half percent due to the restrictions on exports of key materials for semiconductors.
Shin Se-min, Arirang News.
