SINGAPORE– The defense chiefs of South Korea and China held bilateral talks on the margins of a security forum in Singapore on Friday, with North Korea’s continued saber-rattling high on their agenda.
The talks between Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup and his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, came as Seoul seeks to secure regional cooperation to stop Pyongyang’s provocations amid concerns about the possibility of the regime carrying out a nuclear test.
“To sum it up, I had very useful (talks), and it was such a good opportunity for the two sides to understand each other,” Lee told reporters after the meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue. He did not elaborate.
Pyongyang’s recent series of missile launches and its preparations for a nuclear test were expected to figure high in the meeting.
Aside from North Korean issues, the ministers were expected to touch on Seoul’s move to enable the full-fledged operation of a U.S. THAAD antimissile unit in South Korea, which has been in a status of “temporary installation” pending an environmental impact assessment.
Beijing has opposed the operation of the THAAD unit in the South, arguing it would undermine its security interests. Seoul and Washington have defended it as a defensive step against North Korean missile threats.
Seoul and Beijing last held in-person defense ministerial talks in November 2019.
Earlier in the day, Lee held separate talks with his Canadian counterpart, Anita Anand, to discuss their respective countries’ envisioned strategies for the Indo-Pacific region and other issues.
Source: Yonhap News Agency