South Korea and the United States have wrapped up their latest round of high-level defense
talks last week.... and while the two Koreas have been interacting for North Korea's participation
in the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics,...
Seoul and Washington have reaffirmed their ironclad alliance..... saying that their ultimate
goal.... is North Korea's denuclearization.
And before we sit down with an expert to talk more about this... here's our Oh Jung-hee
with more on the meeting.
Amid continued visits and talks between the two Koreas,... the defense chiefs of Seoul
and Washington met on Friday to reaffirm their ironclad alliance and denuclearization goal.
South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo and U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis sat
down for talks at U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii -- just three months after their last
meeting in late October.
The U.S. defense chief welcomed the recent resumption of inter-Korean talks.
But at the same time, Mattis and his South Korean counterpart confirmed their shared
goal of the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
That is... the talks on the Olympics should serve to make North Korea change its path
and come to the negotiation table, but not detract from the ultimate goal of denuclearization.
Song and Mattis also saw eye-to-eye on the need to strengthen military readiness against
Pyongyang,... while maintaining strong support for diplomatic solutions.
(Jan. 26, 2018) "[The best response] to this threat remains
diplomacy-led, backed up with military options available to ensure that our diplomats are
understood to be speaking from a position of strength."
Mattis reaffirmed Washington's ironclad security commitment to South Korea, including extended
deterrence,... and stressed North Korea will face an overwhelming response from the U.S.,...
if the regime ever attacked one of its allies.
Song and Mattis also emphasized that any attempt to crack the Seoul-Washington
alliance will fail.
They agreed to meet face-to-face as often as possible.
While there was speculation the talks would set the schedule for
the postponed joint military drills -- Key Resolve and Foal Eagle -- that was not the
case.
The exact schedules remain unknown,... but the allies' military authorities are firm...
that the drills will be held as normal... immediately after
the PyeongChang Olympics wrap up in March.
Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News.
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