The defense chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan are set to hold trilateral talks on the margins of a security forum in Singapore on Saturday, in what would be another display of solidarity to confront North Korea’s military provocations.
The meeting among Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Nobuo Kishi, came amid speculation that Pyongyang has completed preparations for a nuclear test following a series of missile launches.
The three are in the city state to attend the annual three-day Shangri-La Dialogue that ends Sunday.
The ministers are expected to exchange their assessments on the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and discuss trilateral cooperation to respond to the North’s growing nuclear and missile threats, observers said.
The three countries last held three-way face-to-face defense ministerial talks in November 2019.
Prior to the three-way talks, Lee and Austin are scheduled to have their first bilateral in-person talks since Lee took office last month.
The two are expected to discuss the strengthening of South Korea-U.S. deterrence against an increasingly provocative North Korea based on last month’s summit agreement between President Yoon Suk-yeol and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden.
The agreement includes expanding South Korea- U.S. military exercises, reactivating a key deterrence dialogue “at the earliest date” and deploying America’s strategic military assets “in a timely and coordinated manner as necessary.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency