Top generals of S. Korea, U.S. agree to strengthen cooperation amid N.K. threats

SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's new top general held phone talks with his U.S. counterpart for the first time Tuesday and agreed to strengthen cooperation against North Korea's military threats, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The talks between JCS Chairman Adm. Kim Myung-soo and his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., took place amid heightened tensions after North Korea scrapped a 2018 inter-Korean pact designed to prevent clashes along the border.

During the talks, the two generals discussed the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and shared the view on enhancing trilateral cooperation with Japan to deter and respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

They said they will make efforts to operationalize a system to share North Korean missile warning data in real time with Japan by the end of the year, and to stage various trilateral exercises.

In August, President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida outlined such efforts in a joint statement after their Camp David summit.

Meanwhile, Brown reaffirmed America's "extended deterrence" commitment to using the full-range of its military capabilities to defend South Korea, according to the South's JCS.

Kim called North Korea's recent decision to restore all military activities halted under the 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction agreement a "direct and existential" threat to South Korea and a "grave challenge" to the international community.

The North scrapped the deal on Nov. 23 after the South partially suspended the agreement in protest of the North's launch of its first military spy satellite on Nov. 21.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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