<Anchor>
Overnight in Washington, the defense ministers of the two countries met and made a joint statement after completing the annual Security Council.
However, this year, the phrase that has always been included, the content of maintaining the USFK at the current level, fell into a joint statement for the first time.
Let's connect Washington and learn more.
Correspondent Kim Soo-hyung, how did the contents of the joint statement change regarding the presence of USFK?
<Reporter>
Defense Minister Seo-
wook
, who visited Washington DC for the first time since his inauguration, held a Korea-US Security Council with US Secretary of Defense Esper on the 15th.
Even after the inauguration of the Trump administration, the defense ministers of the two countries each included an agreement in the joint statement to keep the USFK at the current level, but this time it was omitted from the joint statement.
A senior Pentagon official said we had offered to keep the phrase as it was, but the US did not accept it.
<Anchor>
Correspondent Kim and Secretary Esper said they once again pressed harshly that Korea should pay more defense expenses?
<Reporter>
From the beginning of the meeting between the two ministers, Defense Minister Esper made a decision and raised the issue of the share of defense expenses.
It means that we shouldn't be unfair to US taxpayers, and Korea should also contribute more.
Let’s listen to it yourself.
[Sper/U.S. Secretary of Defense: We must find a fairer way to share our common defense costs.
The burden should not be made unfair to U.S. taxpayers.
The United States urges South Korea to further contribute to collective security, along with NATO and other allies.]
It has pressured the need to negotiate a defense share in order to ensure a stable presence of US troops on the Korean Peninsula.
<Anchor> You said
you made a difference in terms of the issue of the conversion and return of exhibition control right?
<Reporter>
Yes, it is.
Regarding wartime operational control, the ministers and ministers made different voices in the same place.
Let’s listen to it yourself.
[Seo Wook/Minister of Defense: We will work together to thoroughly prepare the ROK military-led combined defense system by evaluating the efforts between the ROK and the United States for OPCON transition and discussing future plans to prepare conditions for OPCON transition early.]
[Sper/U.S. Secretary of Defense: It will take some time to convert the wartime power to the Korean commander.
Doing so will strengthen our alliance.]
Our government has pushed forward in the direction of finalizing the OPCON transition until 2022, within the term of President Moon Jae-in, and the United States is willing to put more conditions on the opposition transition.