The defense chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan discussed combined military exercises, including missile warning drills, during their talks in Singapore on Saturday amid North Korea’s growing security threats, Seoul’s defense minister said.
Lee Jong-sup made the remarks after holding trilateral talks with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Nobuo Kishi, on the margins of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
The meeting came amid growing concerns that the North has completed preparations for what would be its seventh nuclear test.
“The issue of the South Korea-U.S.-Japan military exercise was discussed at a comprehensive level,” Lee said. “There were more concrete talks about such things as missile warning trainings or missile tracking and monitoring (drills).”
He was referring to the warning trainings that the three countries already have in place but have not disclosed to the public since 2018 amid Seoul’s diplomacy for inter-Korean rapprochement.
Lee’s remarks raised speculation that the three countries could step up their military cooperation to help rein in the North’s missile provocations.
But he drew the line between the South Korea-U.S. exercise, involving field troop maneuvers, and the three-way exercise.
“We should approach it in a different way,” Lee said.
Washington has been striving to bring its two Asian allies closer together for deeper security cooperation between them. Historical tensions stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula have gotten in the way.
Despite lingering historical tensions, the North’s continued saber-rattling appears to have driven home the importance of collaboration among the three democracies.
“Regarding the North’s nuclear and missile threats, we have shared the understanding on the importance of security cooperation among the three countries, and it was an opportunity to affirm our will to cooperate in that regard,” Lee said.
Prior to the trilateral session, Lee and Austin met bilaterally and discussed joint deterrence to counter North Korean threats.
“Basically, we discussed various ways to increase the enforceability of extended deterrence,” Lee told reporters after the talks without elaboration.
Extended deterrence refers to America’s stated commitment to mobilizing a full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear options, to defend its ally.
Austin stressed Washington’s determination to offer extended deterrence involving the whole range of its military capabilities, including nuclear, conventional and missile defense capabilities, according to Seoul’s defense ministry.
Lee and Austin also reiterated the two countries’ commitment to expanding the scope and scale of combined military exercises and training as agreed upon during last month’s summit between President Yoon Suk-yeol and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden.
Lee used the talks to stress the importance of joint efforts to reactivate the two countries’ Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group, hold tabletop exercises on the use of deterrence assets and deploy U.S. strategic military assets in a coordinated, timely manner, according to the ministry.
Lee and Austin strongly condemned the North’s recent series of missile launches and its preparations for a nuclear test, calling them “provocative acts that seriously threaten peace and stability” on the peninsula and beyond.
In a separate press release, the Pentagon said that Lee and Austin confirmed the importance of “preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” and of the “international rules-based order, peaceful resolution of disputes, and freedom of navigation.”
Saturday’s meeting marked the first face-to-face talks between Lee and Austin since Lee took office last month.
Source: Yonhap News Agency