OUR REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT:

[S]pokeswoman Maureen Schumann said the three countries have been working on stepped-up information sharing.

"The greater trilateral coordination with our nations and particularly the information sharing will increase stability in the northeast Asia region," she said.

A spokesman for South Korea's defense ministry said in a press release emailed on Friday that South Korea, the U.S., and Japan are close to signing a trilateral deal on sharing intelligence. Seoul's Yonhap news agency, citing unnamed Korean defense officials, said vice defense ministers of the three countries will individually sign a memorandum of understanding on the deal on Monday.

The intelligence-sharing deal may signal that relations between South Korea and Japan, which have been at a two-decade low,—are poised to improve. 

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