South Korean Minister of Unification Minister Chung Dongyoung’s first visit to the Joint Security Area in the Korean Demilitarized Zone on July 25, 2025. (Brendan Trembath/U.N. Command)
The United States is limiting what intelligence it shares with South Korea over a claim that a Korean lawmaker publicly divulged the site where North Korea enriches uranium for nuclear weapons, according to media reports this week.
Representatives of the U.S. and South Korean militaries on Tuesday were tight-lipped in response, refusing to either confirm or deny the report, or withholding comment altogether.
Unification Minister Chung Dongyoung cited North Korea’s Kusong region as the site of a uranium enrichment facility during a National Assembly committee meeting on March 6, according to a YouTube video of the meeting.
South Korea’s Defense Intelligence Agency on April 21 said details of the facility are a classified “joint secret” of the U.S. and South Korea, a spokesman for National Assembly Rep. Lim Jong-deuk said by phone Thursday. Lim is a member of the assembly’s National Defense Committee.
The U.S. subsequently reduced South Korea’s access to intelligence on North Korea’s nuclear sites, Yonhap News reported Monday, citing unnamed sources.
The sharing limits did not immediately affect the government’s intelligence gathering capabilities, according to unnamed South Korean military officials quoted by Yonhap. The officials cited real-time coordination between the allies during North Korea’s missile launches in March and April, according to the report.
Chung denied disclosing any classified information and said his remarks were based on publicly available information. He told reporters last week the situation is being framed as a leak, according to a video clip of his news briefing last week.
A Ministry of National Defense spokeswoman on Tuesday would neither confirm nor deny the report of U.S. limits on intelligence sharing, according to a news briefing transcript.
Seoul and Washington “communicate closely and frequently on major issues,” spokeswoman Chung Binna said, according to the transcript.
The sharing of information regarding military readiness, particularly, “is functioning properly,” she said.
“Specific, real-time disclosure of the status of information sharing between South Korea and the U.S. in particular fields is entirely detrimental to our national security and the [South Korea]-U.S. alliance,” she added.
U.S. Forces Korea had no comment, spokeswoman Choi Min-jung told Stars and Stripes by e-mail Tuesday.
Wi Sung-lac, the South Korean national security adviser, told reporters in Hanoi on Thursday that Seoul is “actively communicating with the U.S. over this issue,” according to a Yonhap News report on Friday. Wi accompanied President Lee Jae Myung on a trip to Vietnam.
Wi would neither confirm nor deny the report that the U.S. has restricted its information-sharing with South Korea, citing the sensitive nature of intelligence issues. He said both sides are making efforts to resolve the situation, according to the Yonhap report.
Rep. Sung Il-jong, chair of the National Defense Committee at the National Assembly, told reporters April 21 that Chung’s remarks have strained the U.S.-South Korea alliance, according to a YouTube video of his news briefing.
Sung also claimed the USFK commander, U.S. Army Gen. Xavier Brunson, met with South Korean National Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back to protest the alleged disclosure.
A spokesperson for the National Defense Ministry told reporters in a text message April 21 that Sung’s account is “not true at all.”
President Lee also defended Chung in a post on April 20 on X, saying information about the North Korean facility was already publicly known.
