Washington presses Seoul on intelligence standards amid North Korea sharing limits
The U.S. State Department urged South Korea to properly handle intelligence and counterintelligence matters as Washington restricts sharing of North Korea-related intelligence.
A U.S. State Department sign outside the U.S. State Department building in Washington, on July 11, 2025REUTERS/YONHAP
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of State emphasized it expects allies to appropriately handle intelligence and counterintelligence matters amid questions over intelligence cooperation between South Korea and the United States.
"We expect all allies to handle intelligence and counterintelligence matters appropriately," a U.S. State Department official said in a response to a press inquiry on Saturday.
The message was echoed by another senior U.S. official a day earlier.
"We expect the [Republic of Korea] to uphold the standards of our decadeslong alliance, in particular concerning matters of intelligence and counterintelligence,” a senior U.S. administration official said in a response to press inquiry on Friday. The Republic of Korea is South Korea's official name.
The State Department also addressed claims that there had been issues arranging National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Lee Jong-seok’s visit to the United States and with entry procedures for NIS employees. Lee was reportedly denied the visit by the United States, although the NIS dismissed the report as false.
The State Department stressed that the Donald Trump administration is putting U.S. interests first through strict enforcement of immigration laws and visa procedures and declined to comment on individual visa cases.
U.S. officials did not explain what specific standards allies are expected to follow or what it means to appropriately handle intelligence and counterintelligence matters. They also did not say whether Washington believes South Korea has violated those standards.
The headquarters of the National Intelligence Service, photographed in 2025. The stone monument in front of the building bearing the agency motto, “Intelligence is national strength,” was restored in July 2025.NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICE
The United States has restricted the sharing of intelligence related to North Korea since March, after Minister of Unification Chung Dong-young publicly said that North Korea has a uranium enrichment facility in Kusong, North Pyongan Province.
Academics and others had raised the possibility of a nuclear facility in Kusong for years, but U.S. officials reportedly viewed the public disclosure by a senior South Korean government official as a serious matter.
Washington’s view was that even if the information was already widely known, Chung’s remarks effectively gave official South Korean government confirmation to intelligence gathered through U.S. assets.
The United States expects all partners to strictly protect sensitive U.S. information shared through nonpublic channels, a senior Trump administration official said in April.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
