Latest news with #KIDD
Korea Herald
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
S. Korea, US eye expanding naval shipbuilding, repair cooperation to military aircraft
South Korea and the United States have recently discussed the possibility of expanding their cooperation in the areas of naval shipbuilding and maintenance to military aircraft, the South's defense ministry said Wednesday. The discussion took place when the allies held their Korea-US Integrated Defense Dialogue in Washington last week and agreed to cooperate to strengthen the alliance and achieve shared security goals on the Korean Peninsula and across the Indo-Pacific region, according to the ministry. "South Korea sufficiently explained to the US its capabilities, technologies and determination ... and the US welcomed the suggestion," the ministry said in a written briefing on the issue of maintenance, repair and overhaul and shipbuilding. "Our side also proposed expanding naval MRO cooperation to shipbuilding and both sides concurred on seeking MRO cooperation for aircraft," the ministry said. During last week's meeting, the two sides reaffirmed their joint goal of the "complete denuclearization" of North Korea and expressed grave concerns over the North's advancing nuclear and missile threats and illegal military cooperation with Russia. The allies concurred on the importance of continuously strengthening their combined drills against the North's threats and seeking ways to bolster extended deterrence capabilities through the Nuclear Consultative Group, the ministry said. South Korea and the US launched the NCG following the April 2023 summit between former President Yoon Suk Yeol and former US President Joe Biden to strengthen the credibility of the US extended deterrence commitment. In the meeting, both sides also reaffirmed their commitment for the systemic and stable transfer of conditions-based wartime operational control to Seoul and keeping up the momentum of their trilateral security cooperation with Japan. The allies have held the KIDD meeting once or twice a year since it was launched in 2011 as a comprehensive senior-level defense meeting. The latest KIDD talks, the first such meeting since US President Donald Trump took office in January, took place as Seoul and Washington have been seeking to strengthen their naval shipbuilding and maintenance cooperation. (Yonhap)
Korea Herald
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
S. Korea, US to hold regular KIDD defense talks at Pentagon next week: spokesperson
South Korea and the United States plan to hold their key regular defense talks in Washington next week, a Pentagon spokesperson said Thursday, in a sign that the allies are maintaining close security cooperation under the Trump administration to counter evolving North Korean threats. The spokesperson said that the Korea-US Integrated Defense Dialogue is set to take place at the Pentagon on Thursday and Friday. The upcoming meeting will mark the first KIDD gathering since US President Donald Trump took office in January. "The Korea-US Integrated Defense Dialogue will occur next week and there will be a joint press statement release after the meeting," the spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency via email. Launched in 2011, KIDD is a comprehensive senior-level defense meeting between the allies. Next week's talks will be attended by Cho Chang-rae, South Korea's deputy defense minister for policy and key US defense officials -- John Noh, who performs the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, and Andrew Winternitz, who performs the duties of the deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia. Participants will touch on a range of bilateral security policy cooperation issues, including reinforcing deterrence against evolving North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and the allies' combined defense posture, the South's defense ministry said in a release. The two sides also plan to hold in-depth discussions on the allies' joint efforts for the conditions-based transfer of wartime operational control from the US to South Korea and cooperation in the areas of shipbuilding and maintenance, repair and overhaul, it said. The forthcoming KIDD meeting is expected to help ease lingering concerns that a political transition period in Seoul following the ouster of President Yoon Suk Yeol could have a negative effect on the allies' security policy coordination. Stoking worries over defense collaboration, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth skipped South Korea in his recent trip to the Indo-Pacific that included stops in Japan and the Philippines. His predecessor, Lloyd Austin, also canceled the Korea portion of his Asia swing in December. Asked to comment on the future operation of the Nuclear Consultative Group, the allies' key nuclear deterrence body, the spokesperson said that "NCG deliberations are ongoing." Earlier this week, an official in Seoul said that Seoul and Washington will keep the NCG running under the Trump administration with its next meeting set to take place as early as June. The NCG was launched by former President Yoon and former US President Joe Biden following their April 2023 summit to strengthen the US "extended deterrence" commitment to defending its ally South Korea with all of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons. (Yonhap)
