The defense ministers of the Republic of Korea, the United States and Japan held a phone meeting on the morning of the 10th and decided to closely cooperate against the North Korean missile threat.
Defense Minister Seo Wook, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi shared their assessments of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the region through a telephone conversation.
In a press release after the talks ended, the Ministry of National Defense explained, "The three countries have decided to continue their efforts to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula by closely cooperating against the North Korean missile threat."
Minister Seo Wook said, "We are deterring and responding to North Korea's increasing nuclear and missile threats based on our military's independently available capabilities such as the nuclear and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) response system and the strong ROK-U.S. alliance." We will do it,” he said.
"Secretary Austin had a conversation today with Secretary Suh and Defense Minister Nobuo to reaffirm the importance of trilateral security cooperation to address global security issues and the threat posed by North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and missile programs," Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby said. said.
"The three ministers underscored that North Korea's ballistic missile launch destabilized regional security and clearly violated many UN Security Council resolutions," Kirby said.
During the telephone meeting, the defense ministers of the three countries announced that they had agreed to hold a face-to-face meeting on a mutually agreed date in the future.
It is known that the three-way face-to-face meeting will most likely be held in Hawaii in March.
(Photo = Yonhap News)