The defense chiefs of South Korea and the U.S. held their first face-to-face meeting in Washington on Monday... and reaffirmed their allies' defense posture on the Korean peninsula.
Kim Ji-yeon reports.
Washington's acting defense chief has hailed the recently-concluded Dong Maeng joint military exercise between South Korea and the U.S., as a big success,... adding lessons were learned that could be applied in drills set for September.
Patrick Shanahan made the remarks after his meeting on Monday with visiting South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo at the Pentagon.
"I don't think we're scaling back exercises. I think we're building capability. We want to make sure that there are no gaps or seams and that we continue to build on these exercises. We're going to talk about the September exercises and the lessons learned from these ones in March."
Jeong also said the drill was successful... adding it was an opportunity to test the eventual transfer of wartime operational control from the U.S. to South Korea.
Seoul's defense ministry also said the two allies agreed that the Comprehensive Military Agreement signed by the two Koreas last year... has helped alleviate military tensions on the Korean peninsula... and will continue to support efforts to carry out the inter-Korean agreement.
The face-to-face meeting between the defense chiefs is seen as an effort to dispel concerns that a downsized joint military exercise aimed at not angering North Korea... has no impact in the allies' defense posture... even as denuclearization talks hang in the balance after the Hanoi summit.
"North Korea stopped the testing of nuclear and missiles and we stopped the military exercises. But if the process of denuclearization doesn't evolve in the future anymore, then why do we stop and resume the military exercises? I think that's something that has to follow through."
The Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint drill... usually held in August every year... is to be replaced by the Dong Maeng exercise planned for the latter half of this year.
Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News.
