Japan makes peace vow to U.S.

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Friday to work closely with the U.S. for regional peace after South Korea’s decision to cancel a deal with Japan to share military intelligence.

Abe also accused South Korea of not keeping past promises. The intelligence agreement started in 2016.

“We will continue to closely coordinate with the U.S. to ensure regional peace and prosperity, as well as Japan’s security,” he said ahead of his departure for the Group of Seven summit of industrialized nations in France.

South Korea announced Thursday that it would terminate the intelligence deal because Tokyo’s decision to downgrade South Korea’s preferential trade status had caused a “grave” change in the security cooperation between the countries. Seoul says it will downgrade Tokyo’s trade status as well, a change that would take effect in September.

Senior South Korean presidential official Kim Hyunchong on Friday defended his government’s decision. He told reporters that “there is no longer any justification” for South Korea to continue the deal because of Japan’s claim that basic trust between the countries had been undermined.

South Korea has accused Japan of weaponizing trade to punish it over a separate dispute linked to Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Japan denies any retaliation.

Kim accused Japan of having ignored South Korea’s repeated calls for dialogue and other conciliatory steps to resolve the bitter trade and history disputes.

He said Japan’s “breach of diplomatic etiquette” had undermined “our national pride.”

Japan has long claimed all wartime compensation issues were settled when the two countries normalized relations under a 1965 treaty.

AP/ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO Russian Presidential Regent soldiers perform Friday during the Spasskaya Tower international military music festival in Moscow’s Red Square.