As part of an escalating diplomatic dispute, South Korea announced on Thursday that it would end the sharing of military intelligence with Japan. The rift between the two nations, usually mediated by US influence, has widened in recent months and has led to a trade war in the Pacific. Tensions were first sparked in this exchange by South Korean court rulings that demanded reparations from Japanese companies that made use of Korean forced labor during the Japanese occupation of Korea in World War Two. Japan largely avoids acknowledging the crimes…