South Korea Tuesday ruled out the possibility of forging a military intelligence sharing agreement with Japan after a recent military exchange between the neighbors stoked speculations on the pact.
  

Japan's chief of the intelligence bureau at the defense ministry, Tadashi Miyagawa, visited South Korea last week to hold an annual conference on military intelligence sharing with his South Korean counterpart.
  

The visit stoked speculations that the neighbors may be restarting efforts to sign a General Security of Military Information Agreement following their botched attempt in 2012.
  

"As of now, there are no discussions on GSOMIA or Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement nor any moves to do so," Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a regular briefing.
  

It was only part of the neighbors' annual working-level information sharing exchanges, Kim said, refusing to discuss details of the closed-door meeting.
  

In 2012, the neighbors had pushed to sign GSOMIA to share intelligence on North Korea, but the efforts were put on hold at the last minute amid public protest against the government's secretly arranged push for the deal with the former colonial ruler. (Yonhap)