Korea's defense chief departed for Washington Tuesday for annual talks with his U.S. counterpart expected to focus on mapping out joint defense strategies against North Korea following the recent extension of South Korea's ballistic missile range.
Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta will hold the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Washington on Wednesday to discuss how to handle threats from North Korea and maintain a close alliance for stability in the region, his ministry said.
The meeting is expected to focus on how to prepare a joint defense posture under the revised missile guideline that allows Seoul to nearly triple the range of its ballistic missiles to 800 kilometers, a distance long enough to strike targets anywhere in North Korea.
The two sides will also discuss ways to maintain their joint defense posture even after Seoul retakes wartime operational control (OPCON) over its troops from the U.S. in 2015. The Combined Forces Command, which has served as a control tower of the allies' military partnerships, will be dismantled when Seoul regains OPCON.
Inter-Korean tensions have escalated in the lead up to South Korea's presidential election in December after Pyongyang condemned Seoul's announcement of the new missile guideline, and a series of minor clashes near the western maritime sea border.
The latest confrontation came when the North warned of a "merciless" attack if an anti-Pyongyang activist group went through with plans to launch propaganda leaflets across the heavily fortified border on Monday, a plan that was prevented by Korean officials.
The two Koreas are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea to help deter North Korean aggression. (Yonhap)