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U.S. defense chief arrives in S. Korea

08 August 2019 16:26 (UTC +04:00)

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrived in South Korea on Thursday for talks that are expected to focus on a series of requests Washington has been making to Seoul, including a greater financial contribution to the cost of stationing American troops here, APA reports citing Yonhap News Agency.

Also expected to be on the agenda for Esper's talks with South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo are the U.S. initiative to secure the shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz and Washington's wish to get a military information-sharing pact between the South and Japan renewed.

Esper landed at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, from Mongolia for a two-day visit as part of his five-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific region, which includes stops in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, according to defense ministry officials. It is his first overseas trip since taking office last month.

On Friday, he plans to meet with Jeong to discuss pending issues, including "ways to boost cooperation for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the condition-based transfer of the wartime operational control," Jeong's office said in a release.

After the talks, the two sides are expected to publicly release details on the Seoul-Washington combined military exercise, including its name and duration.

The allies practically kicked off their summertime combined exercise on Monday, though neither side has officially confirmed its commencement in apparent consideration of North Korea, which has sent strong warnings repeatedly against the exercise by launching short-range missiles.

The command post exercise is meant to test South Korea's initial operational capability (IOC) for the envisioned OPCON transfer from Washington to Seoul, according to the officials.

The two chiefs are to share their assessment of North Korea's newly-developed short-range ballistic missiles, known as KN-23, and discuss ways to better counter its evolving missile threats, they added.