21 September 2017

News Story: S. Korea, China hold high-level military talks amid THAAD row

SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Yonhap) -- Senior South Korean and Chinese military officials held bilateral talks here on Wednesday amid drawn-out diplomatic standoffs between the neighboring countries, South Korea's Army said.

The half-an-hour meeting between Gen. Kim Yong-woo, the South Korean Army chief of staff, and Lt. Gen. You Haitao, deputy commander of the Chinese Army, took place on the sidelines of the 10th Pacific Armies Chiefs Conference (PACC) underway in Seoul.

You is leading China's delegation to the biennial conference. He is the first high-level Chinese defense official to visit South Korea since Seoul's agreement with the U.S. Forces Korea last year to deploy the THAAD missile defense system on its soil.

The allies have stressed that it's aimed at countering North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. But China does not want a THAAD battery, which includes a state-of-the-art X-band radar, on its doorstep.

The South's Army officials confirmed that the Kim-You meeting occurred earlier in the day but stopped short of providing details. They also didn't release a relevant photo.

Read the full story at YonhapNews