01 August 2017

News Story: S. Korea, U.S. seeking defense chiefs' meeting at early date

SEOUL, July 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States are seeking to hold a meeting of their defense ministers at an early date to discuss North Korea's evolving missile threats, government officials said Monday.

The two sides are pushing for the first meeting between Defense Minister Song Myoung-moo and his U.S. counterpart Jim Mattis before the allies' annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) slated for October, Seoul's defense ministry said.

Song, a former Navy chief of staff, took office this month as South Korea's defense chief.

The meeting will come as North Korea launched a second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in less than a month on Friday, claiming that the whole U.S. mainland is within its striking range.

The envisioned meeting is likely to focus on curbing North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and issues between the two allies, including a revision of a ballistic missile guideline and a U.S. missile defense system, it said.

Read the full story at YonhapNews