Leaked Pentagon docs had influence on upcoming Korea-US summit: official

A bird's-eye view of Pentagon (AP-Yonhap)

The recent leaking of US intelligence documents "inevitably had an effect" ahead of the summit between Seoul and Washington, a high-ranking South Korean official told reporters in Washington on Thursday.

Consequently, the upcoming summit scheduled to start on April 26 will touch upon ways to restore trust in bilateral information gathering and sharing in the wake of the leakage, the official said on condition of anonymity. He referred to the leakage of what was believed to be an intelligence document showing the White House had been collecting the government communications in Korea.

The official was also told by a US official that the leakage has put the US in a tough spot, given that such exchanges over the matter before the official meeting of President Yoon Suk Yeol and US President Joe Biden in Washington might dent the Korea-US alliance.

The remarks came after US federal law enforcement authorities arrested Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old US airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, for the alleged leaking of classified documents related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The US internal investigation is underway over whether the leaked US intelligence documents were fabricated, the official said. But on a side note, he maintained that what the documents indicate does "not accord with the facts." The official also reiterated his stance that the leakage was "not ill-intentioned."

By Son Ji-hyoung(consnow@heraldcorp.com)