Japan and South Korea will hold a third working-level meeting Monday in Tokyo to discuss signing a bilateral agreement on sharing military intelligence, Japan’s foreign and defense ministries said Sunday.

The South Korea media have reported the two countries plan to approve the deal Monday in a move to better cope with North Korea’s military threats.

The so-called General Security of Military Information Agreement is aimed at facilitating the exchange of military intelligence while preventing such information from falling into the hands of other countries.

In 2012, Japan and South Korea were ready to sign the agreement, but Seoul declined to do so at the last minute due to domestic opposition related to negative sentiment regarding Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula before and during World War II.

The two countries resumed the talks on Nov. 1 after a lapse of four years.

Concern grown in some quarters in Japan about whether the agreement can be effectively implemented — even if it is concluded — amid a deepending corruption scandal surrounding the government of South Korean President Park Geun-hye.