South Korea, US and Japan share intel on North Korea

The pact will help it deal better with North Korea's increasing nuclear and missile threats

South Korea says it'll sign a trilateral intelligence-sharing pact with the US and Japan next week to better cope with North Korea's increasing nuclear and missile threats.

The US has separate, bilateral intelligence-sharing agreements with South Korea and Japan, both American allies which are hosts to tens of thousands of American troops.

But Seoul and Japan don't have such bilateral pacts amid long-running history disputes stemming from Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

In 2012, the two almost forged their first-ever intelligence-sharing pact but its signing was scrapped at the last minute due to backlash in South Korea.

Seoul's Defense Ministry said today that South Korea and Japan would share intelligence on the North's nuclear and missile programs via the US under the agreement.