The United States wants to organize trilateral military exercises with South Korea and Japan to better deal with disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, Yonhap News reported.
Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. Army in the Pacific, said Tuesday, "There's been a lot of exchanges of information and so forth, but a specific exercise of a trilateral nature would be something new," according to the report.
In a teleconference from Bangkok, Mixon said, "There's been interest shown concerning that, and so we're awaiting some ideas and information from both of the armies, and we intend to move forward on that as soon as we can."
The South Korean military is currently taking part in joint military exercises with the U.S. and Thailand, which are under way in the Southeast Asian country until next week.
Mixon said, "We're just thrilled to have South Korea participating this year," according to Yonhap.
President Lee Myung-bak has called for future-oriented relations with Japan since his inauguration in February 2008.
However, Seoul-Tokyo ties are often strained by disputes over their shared history that includes the Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
In addition, Japan has claimed its sovereignty over the Dokdo Islets, which South Korea claims is its own territory, in the East Sea.
Mixon, based in Hawaii, was quoted as saying that he is optimistic about the proposed trilateral exercises.
The commander said, "We have had discussions with both the Japanese ground self-defense force, South Korea, and the U.S. about putting together multilateral or at least trilateral exercises based on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capability," he said. "So I think it's a good sign, and it shows a lot of understanding by the South Korean military that they are an important part of peace and stability within the region," according to Yonhap.