Korea-U.S. defense talks... "Expansion of joint practice in the second half of the year"

<Anchor>

The defense ministers of the Republic of Korea and the United States held a meeting amid continuing concerns about North Korea's nuclear test.

It is known that countermeasures against the North Korean nuclear program have been intensively discussed, but it has been decided to expand the South Korea-US joint exercise in the second half of this year by integrating it with the Ulji exercise.

This is Washington correspondent Yunsu Kim.

<Reporter> Defense Minister Lee Jong-

seop and US Defense Secretary Austin met at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

It has been more than 50 days since the 'Shangri-La Dialogue', an Asian security conference held in Singapore in June.

As concerns about North Korea's nuclear test persist, discussions have focused on responding to North Korea's nuclear program.

Minister Lee emphasized a joint response, saying that the higher the threat from North Korea, the stronger the ROK-U.S. alliance.

[Lee Jong-seop/Secretary of Defense: I hope that these things, such as deterrence measures against North Korea's nuclear test, and how the ROK and the United States should respond in the event of a nuclear test, will be seriously discussed today.]

US Defense Secretary Austin said that North Korea has the most It was diagnosed as a serious situation, saying that it was conducting a missile provocation.

However, the ROK-U.S. alliance is ready to respond to any threat, confirming that the United States will provide maximum extended deterrence, including nuclear forces.

[Lloyd Austin/Secretary of Defense: The United States will provide South Korea with extended deterrence using all categories of defense capabilities, including nuclear and conventional weapons and missile defense capabilities.]

To this end, it was agreed to hold a high-level ROK-U.S. high-level extended deterrence strategy in the near future.

In particular, the defense ministers decided to strengthen the deterrence posture by integrating the ROK-US combined exercise with the Ulji exercise in the second half of this year and including the deployment of US strategic assets in the Korean Peninsula.