By Lee Chi-dong
SINGAPORE June 2 (Yonhap) -- Singapore prepared Friday to greet top defense officials from South Korea, the United States and two dozen other countries for Asia's most high-profile security forum.
The three-day Asia Security Summit, also known as the Shanggri-La Dialogue, is slated to kick off at night with a special address by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Security guards, armed with rifles, were deployed around the venue, the Shangri-La Hotel in this city state.
This year's session comes amid North Korea's unrelenting provocations highlighted by a series of ballistic missile launches.
"The North Korea issue is traditionally a top agenda item of the annual conference," South Korea's Ambassador to Singapore Lee Sang-deok said, although the communist country has been absent from the forum launched in 2002.
Keen attention will also be paid to the Donald Trump administration's policy on Asia.
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