Top defense officials of S. Korea, U.S. to hold annual dialogue

By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee will head
to Washington this week for talks with his U.S. counterpart Robert M. Gates that
will focus on strengthening the alliance between the two countries and other
bilateral issues, the Defense Ministry said Monday.
The talks, the 40th South Korea-U.S. defense ministerial dialogue known as the
Strategic Consultative Meeting (SCM), will be held Friday (Washington time),
according to the ministry.
The ministerial talks will follow an annual meeting of the countries' chairmen of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, known as the Military Committee Meeting, to be held
also in Washington on Thursday, it said.
"At the 40th SCM to be held since it was first held in 1968, the two ministers
will reaffirm the strength of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and their joint
defense posture and discuss ways to develop the alliance into a future-oriented
alliance of the 21st century as agreed by their heads of state," the ministry
said in a press release.
Lee and U.S. Secretary of Defense Gates will also exchange their views on the
security conditions in Korea and Northeast Asia, it added.
The two will also review the progress in a number of ongoing projects that
include the scheduled transfer of the wartime operational control of South Korean
troops from Washington to Seoul in 2012, as well as the relocation of frontline
U.S. military installations in Korea to south of Seoul.
Lee and Gates are also expected to sign an agreement at the upcoming talks that
will allow Seoul's purchase of nearly 500,000 tons of U.S. reserve munitions in
Korea for some 270 billion won (US$213 million), according to ministry officials.
"The South Korean and U.S. sides will adopt the outcome of the upcoming SCM as a
joint statement, reaffirming the strength of their alliance and the United
States' commitment to the joint defense of South Korea," the ministry said.
Many observers, however, believe there is unlikely to be any significant or
meaningful outcome from the ministers' meeting as it comes less than three weeks
before the U.S. presidential election.
"There will likely not be any new agreements between the countries, but the
holding of the defense ministerial talks itself is very significant in that it
demonstrates the strength of the alliance even in times of such a political
change in both of the countries," a ministry official said, asking not to be
identified.
The South Korean minister will also use the opportunity to speak to American
experts of Korea, such as former ambassadors to South Korea and former commanders
of U.S. Forces Korea, the ministry said. Lee is scheduled to give a special
lecture on the future of the South Korea-U.S. alliance on Wednesday.