By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
South Korea, the United States and Japan will resume their defense strategy conferences, which were halted in 2006. The decision was reached last month during the Korea-U.S. Military Committee Meeting (MCM).
An unnamed Korean military official was quoted as saying that ``Korea and the United States agreed during their 30th MCM in October that South Korea, the United States and Japan will convene defense strategy meetings to plan military cooperation between the three nations,'' according to Yonhap News Agency Sunday. Senior defense ministry officials from the three countries will meet in Washington sometime in November, Yonhap reported.
Previous defense strategy meetings came to a halt in 2006 as Korea-Japan relations rapidly deteriorated. The Roh Moo-hyun administration decided to stop participating in the joint meetings that year.
Korea-Japan bilateral ties took a hit because of a controversy over Japan's new history textbooks. Critics have argued that the books, written for Japan's public schools, distorted history and whitewashed Japanese wartime atrocities.
Yonhap quoted a Korean military official as saying ``At the Korea-U.S. Military Committee Meeting in October, the two sides came to an agreement that there is a need to increase security cooperation between the three countries. Based on this view, we also agreed to actively participate in joint military exercises hosted by the United States Pacific Command.''
South Korea already participates in search and rescue drills during the RIMPAC, or the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, which is the largest international maritime exercise in the Pacific.
Korean and U.S. delegates at the MCM summit last month also spoke about boosting cooperation with China and establishing military diplomacy with Beijing. At the meeting, Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the U.S. Armed Forces, said improving cooperative relations with China would help improve East Asian regional stability.
Kim Tae-Young, South Korea's Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, expressed his agreement with Mullen's view. Kim reportedly said he would seek to enhance military diplomacy with China, using the Korea-U.S. alliance as a foundation.
The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff also said that China could play a major role in easing the tension on the Korean Peninsula. ``There is a need to strengthen cooperation with Beijing so that it can make positive contributions to the peninsula in case of an emergency,'' the U.S. military chief was quoted as saying.