S. Korea, US to sign cybersecurity pact during Yoon-Biden summit

President Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden during their summit at a hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 13, 2022. Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

South Korea and the United States are expected to sign a cybersecurity pact during a summit between Presidents Yoon Suk Yeol and Joe Biden later this month, a senior Seoul official said on Friday.

“As a result of the South Korea-U.S. summit, a separate document on cybersecurity will be announced,” the official told South Korean correspondents in Washington. “The document will be about reconfirming the two countries' mutual trust on cybersecurity, as well as generating and analyzing more trustworthy information.”

The official continued by saying that the document will likely contain “measures that can rebuild the two countries' trust (on cybersecurity) in terms of putting them into practice.” He also implied that the pact will include an expansion of cybersecurity information sharing between the two countries.

"With the (South Korea-U.S.) alliance commemorating its 70th anniversary, it is inappropriate to limit the domain of the two countries' Mutual Defense Treaty to the geographical territory before the Korean War," the official said. "Seoul is in consultation with the U.S. based on the recognition that the two countries' alliance should expand to space and cyberspace."

The two countries' discussions on cybersecurity picked up momentum after the 2021 summit between then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Biden, where the two countries agreed to deepen their cooperation on countermeasures against risks in cybersecurity and space.

The pact referred to by the official is assumed to be an interim outcome of bilateral efforts since the summit and is anticipated to contain details on narrowing the two countries' gap in assessing which entity is the biggest cyber threat.

“There are differences between South Korea and the U.S. in setting the priority targets in terms of cybersecurity,” said Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

“While South Korea is assessing cyber threats from North Korea as the top priority, the U.S. is seeing risks from China and Russia as higher priorities... It is assumable that the pact will be about narrowing these gaps and including 'a global perception' into the two countries' cybersecurity efforts.”

Though chances are low, the pact may also include the concept of Defend Forward. It is a term used in the U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Strategy. It refers to actions that disrupt malicious cyber activity at its source, including activity that falls below the level of armed conflict.

The U.S. Cyber Command explains that if a device, a network, an organization, or an adversary nation is identified as a threat to U.S. networks and institutions, or is actively attacking them in or through cyberspace, it can expect a measured response from the U.S.

Gaining attention in this discussion is whether this pact will help restore the two countries' mutual trust in information and intelligence, which is now being tested in the wake of allegations that U.S. intelligence may have surveilled the South Korean presidential office. This was raised after a set of purported U.S. Pentagon documents were leaked online recently.

So far, the South Korean presidential office has been denying any malicious attempt by the U.S. to obtain intelligence, and the allegations that Seoul's most high protection area was breached by its closest ally are groundless.

However, criticisms are growing that Seoul is downplaying the seriousness of the issue, as it wants to prevent any adverse impact on Yoon's state visit to the U.S.

"As far as the South Korean government has been able to determine, there is no sign indicating that the U.S. spied on us," a senior official said. "We deem that there have been no malicious attempts by the U.S."

A separate official at the South Korean presidential office said Friday that South Korea and the U.S. are making efforts to determine the truth and “will demand the U.S. make appropriate explanations if necessary.”

“The two countries are now communicating in such a context, and the U.S. is expressing its apologies in a courteous manner,” the official said.