针对上述报道，韩国总统办公室一名官员9日回应，韩方将就此事与美方沟通。

据《纽约时报》的说法，美方根据“信号情报”获知韩国政府内部讨论细节。信号情报是情报机构专用术语，意味着美国一直在监听韩国这一亚洲主要盟友。

The secret report was based on signals intelligence, which meant that the United States has been spying on one of its major allies in Asia.

乌克兰炮兵向乌克兰克雷米纳市内的俄罗斯防御工事发射炮弹。图源：纽约时报

The documents pertaining to South Korea showed a key American ally torn between Washington's pressure on Seoul to help supply ammunition to Ukraine and its official policy of not providing lethal weapons to countries at war. Seoul feared that President Biden would call Mr. Yoon directly to press the matter.

上月在乌克兰进行的招兵 图源：纽约时报

South Korea was aware of the news reports about the leaked documents and planned to discuss "issues raised" by the leak with Washington, a senior government official in Seoul told reporters on Sunday. When asked whether South Korea planned to lodge a protest or demand an explanation from Washington, he said the government would study precedents from the past and similar cases involving other nations.

"South Korea's position has been that it will cooperate with the United States while not clashing with Russia," said Yang Uk, a weapons expert at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. "The documents leaked put South Korea in a more difficult position."

"It's reasonable to suspect that the United States spies on top defense and security officials in Seoul, but it's bad news for the general public ahead of the South Korea-US summit," he added. "People will ask, 'We have been allies for seven decades, and you still spy on us?'"

K9榴弹炮在韩国最大的国防承包商韩华公司的试验场。图源：纽约时报

A trove of secret Pentagon documents that were exposed on social media have shed new light on the state of the war in Ukraine, showing just how deeply the United States has penetrated Russia's military and intelligence services, and revealing that Washington also appears to be spying on some of its closest allies, including Ukraine, Israel and South Korea.