The trade ministry Tuesday rebutted a media report that it told South Korea it would take one month to retract its tightened export control measures as part of a deal to keep a key intelligence-sharing pact intact.
"There's no such fact," a senior official in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said of a Yonhap news agency report late Monday that Japan raised a specific time frame for removing enhanced screening measures put in place in July.
Citing unnamed sources, the Yonhap report said the Japanese offer "apparently" induced South Korea to stick to the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). South Korea announced Friday evening it was opting, hours before its expiration, not to rescind the bilateral agreement to exchange sensitive information primarily on missile threats from North Korea.