[Yang Nakgyu's Defence Club] Is the 'Five Eyes-level' Intelligence Alliance a Boon or a Bane?

With the increasing possibility of launching the so-called Korea-US-Japan version of the 'Five Eyes' at the Korea-US summit scheduled for the 26th of this month, the intelligence alliance between Korea and the US is expected to be further strengthened. The Five Eyes is a system where five English-speaking countries?led by the United States and the United Kingdom, along with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand?form an intelligence alliance to jointly collect, share, and utilize military intelligence. While it offers the advantage of sharing top-level information, such as enabling rapid military intelligence exchange in situations like North Korean provocations, concerns have also been raised that a 'second THAAD retaliation incident' could be repeated due to strong opposition from China.

According to military authorities on the 17th, the three countries of Korea, the US, and Japan have already been sharing military intelligence through the Korea-US-Japan Information Sharing Agreement (TISA) established in 2014 and the Korea-Japan General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) signed in 2016. However, under the current system, real-time cooperation in response to sudden missile provocations by North Korea is difficult. In the case of TISA, Korea and Japan can only exchange information through the US as an intermediary, and GSOMIA, introduced to supplement this, shares information only upon request.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

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So far, Korea and the US have been able to exchange limited but direct information. At SUSLAK, the Korean branch of the US National Security Agency (NSA), information from Korea’s 777th unit, a communications interception unit, and the US 8th Army’s ‘501st Military Intelligence Brigade,’ a key intelligence unit of the US Forces Korea, are shared and analyzed in real time.

Raising the level of Korea-US-Japan intelligence sharing to the 'Five Eyes' standard is expected to improve the quality of information. The US National Security Agency’s Directorate of Operations oversees the intelligence in the Five Eyes. Each country shares information through an intelligence collection program called ‘ECHELON.’ The five countries share various types of intelligence, including HUMINT (human intelligence) and SIGINT (signals intelligence).

HUMINT is handled by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the UK Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (SIS), and the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service. SIGINT is managed by the US National Security Agency (NSA), the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Australia’s Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), the Canadian Communications Security Establishment (CSEC), and the New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).

However, if Korea, the US, and Japan strengthen intelligence sharing to the 'Five Eyes' level, opposition from China is expected. Korea is not included in the Quad, a security consultative body consisting of the US, Japan, India, and Australia, nor in AUKUS, a security alliance between the US, the UK, and Australia. The Chinese government views these alliances as efforts to contain China. Previously, when THAAD was deployed in Seongju, Gyeongbuk in 2016, China opposed it, claiming that the US military could monitor Chinese territory through THAAD, and retaliated economically by restricting group tours to Korea and banning Korean popular culture (the Hallyu ban).

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