South Korea's NIS omitted from June US-Japan-Korea cyber security meeting

In June, the Trilateral Diplomatic Working Group met to discuss North Korean cyber threats, but South Korea's National Intelligence Service was not invited. The United States reportedly requested the NIS be barred, a move the agency later acknowledged. The session, the fifth of the working group and the first without the NIS, gathered more than 60 participants from relevant ministries and agencies of the three countries.

Discussions centered on evaluating Pyongyang's illicit cyber operations and formulating countermeasures. South Korean officials described the exclusion as a misunderstanding over differing national interests that has now been cleared up, emphasizing continued close cooperation with the United States on security matters. The issue surfaced after a local newspaper reported the U.S. request, which followed remarks by Unification Minister Chung Dong-young about a third North Korean uranium enrichment site.