SEOUL:South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup met with the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command in Seoul on Friday to discuss North Korea’s provocations and the Seoul-Washington alliance, Lee’s office said.
Lee and Adm. John Aquilino shared the view that the allies have “strongly” responded to North Korea over Pyongyang’s latest ballistic missile tests, according to Seoul’s defense ministry.
They also agreed to seek close coordination in bolstering the allies’ defense posture, it said
South Korea and the US recently staged joint naval exercises involving a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, near the Korean Peninsula in a show of force amid Pyongyang’s intensified ballistic missile activities.
North Korea has ratcheted up tensions on the peninsula with a string of weapons tests, including the firing of an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan on Tuesday.
North Korea stance
North Korea said Saturday its latest missile tests are “regular and self-defense” actions against US military threats, days after it fired a series of ballistic missiles.
“The missile test launch by the DPRK is a regular and planned self-defensive step for defending the country’s security and the regional peace from the US direct military threats that have lasted for more than half a century,” the National Aviation Administration (NAA) said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The DPRK is the acronym for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
