Seoul: The top military officers of South Korea and the US emphasized the importance of establishing capabilities and posture to effectively respond to advancing North Korean threats in light of Pyongyang’s expanding cooperation with Moscow.
According to Kuwait News Agency, the Chairman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Adm. Kim Myung-soo and his US counterpart Gen. John Daniel Caine held their first video talks since Caine took office last month. The discussions were prompted by suspicions that North Korea has received military technology assistance from Russia in exchange for deploying troops to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
On Saturday, North Korea showcased what appeared to be a live-fire drill involving a new air-to-air missile launched from a MiG-29 fighter jet. Kim and Caine also committed to further strengthening the allies’ trilateral security cooperation with Japan, as noted in a JCS release. The JCS stated that through the upcoming South Korea-US-Japan Trilateral Chief of Defense meeting set to take place in South Korea in July, the two sides agreed to bolster the momentum of trilateral security cooperation.
The three countries have recently intensified their trilateral security cooperation through joint military drills amid escalating nuclear and missile threats from North Korea. In last July, the defense chiefs of the three countries signed the framework in what was seen as a move to formalize their tripartite security collaboration.