26 August 2017

News Story: S.Korean defense chief to visit Washington for talks with Mattis

SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo planned to visit Washington later this month for talks with his U.S. counterpart Jim Mattis, Seoul's defense ministry said Friday.

Song was scheduled to visit the United States from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2 to hold a bilateral meeting with the Pentagon head on Aug. 30.

The bilateral meeting would be held at the request of South Korea to discuss countermeasures against rising nuclear and missile threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to Yonhap news agency.

Possibly on the dialogue agenda would be the transfer of wartime operational control of South Korean troops from Washington to Seoul, the revision of the guideline on the U.S.-South Korea missile development and the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interception system, according to Yonhap.

A defense ministry official was quoted as saying that nothing has been decided yet on the dialogue agenda.

Read the full story at Xinhua