President Moon Jae-in met with the US Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday afternoon and reconfirmed his government's stance on the military information pact with Japan. 

Moon told the visiting US defense chief that is difficult to share information with Japan which imposed export restrictions to South Korea, citing it as untrustworthy security partner. 

According to the presidential office spokesperson  Ko Min-jung, President Moon explained to Esper that he finds it difficult to maintain the General Security of Military Information Agreement with Japan.

In late August, the Moon administration decided not to renew the security information sharing deal which is slated to expire as of next Saturday. 

The president, however, reaffirmed his administration's commitment to continued efforts for "important" trilateral security partnerships in regional security.

The Pentagon chief was quoted as saying that he will ask Japan to make efforts as well to resolve the GSOMIA issue smoothly.

After holding an annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) session with South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo on Friday, Esper emphasized that keeping GSOMIA alive is crucial in three-way security cooperation, especially against China and North Korea.