The US pressure on south Korea is getting stronger as the expiration date of the general security of military intelligence agreement (GSOMIA) is near at hand.

Those concerned of the State Department and the Defense Department flied to Seoul one after another to pressurize south Korea to retract its decision to scrap GSOMIA. The US Congress and even the US embassy in south Korea are joining them.

They are pressurizing south Korea every day to mend its relations with Japan, as evidenced by their loud talk about "security cooperation between south Korea, the US and Japan" and "importance of intelligence sharing between allies" at a meeting of south Korea-US military commission on November 14, an annual security consultative meeting on November 15 and the talks between defense ministers of the US, Japan and south Korea in Thailand on November 17.

As far as GSOMIA high on the agenda is concerned, it was hastily concluded by traitor Pak Geun Hye with Japan in a bid to remain in power with the backing of outside forces and by taking advantage of the chaotic political situation in south Korea in 2016 when she was driven into a tight corner due to revelations about her high-profile political scandals.

The agreement, which is utterly harmful to the stability of the Korean peninsula and the region, was rejected and condemned by the public as the "Second Ulsa (1905) Treaty", when its conclusion came up for discussion. A decision on its abrogation was finally made in August to meet strong demand of south Korean people angered by Japan's history distortion and economic invasion.

It was a due decision and another victory achieved by the candlelight demonstrators in south Korea.

This being a hard fact, the US is openly interfering in the internal affairs of south Korea, forcing the south Korean authorities to submit to the demand of the island country. This brings to light for whom the agreement is necessary.

Historically, the sensitive issue of intelligence sharing between the assailant Japan and the victim south Korea had been a very serious social and historical issue. So, its conclusion was impossible without the US manipulation and pressure.

In a bid to keep its two servants at odds more firmly bound by the triangular military alliance and use them as a shock brigade for realizing its strategy of world hegemony and secure "core military intelligence about north Korea" in particular, the US has concentrated its efforts on the conclusion and maintenance of the agreement.

The US once kept mum about Japan's economic sanction on south Korea, terming it an "affair to be tackled by south Korea and Japan." But it is desperately pressurizing south Korea to extend GSOMIA, which south Korea decided to abrogate as a retaliatory step. This sheds light on the black-hearted intention of the US which makes no scruple of reducing south Korea to an economic colony and vassal one of Japan for the sake of its military interests.

Japan is buoyed up by its master's stance and is more arrogantly behaving, and this enrages the public.

The majority of respondents in a recent opinion poll conducted in south Korea called for ending GSOMIA as scheduled. At protest rallies being held every day, south Koreans are vocal in urging the US not to pressurize south Korea to extend GSOMIA and calling for ending the slave-master relations between south Korea and the US.

Now the south Korean authorities have two options--whether to cave in to the pressure by the outsiders or accept the demand of the popular masses.

They should bear in mind that if they take a low attitude towards Japan in obedience to the US, they will commit high treason against the nation that can never be pardoned.

KCNA