Seoul, Feb 11 (IANS) Senior defence officials of South Korea and the United States held talks in Seoul on Wednesday to discuss ways to advance their combined sustainment capabilities, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The meeting between Koo Sang-mo, the JCS’ chief director of military support, and Mark Simerly, director of the US Defence Logistics Agency (DLA), marked the first official engagement between the two organizations, the JCS said, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The two sides discussed ways to deepen their combined sustainment capabilities based on the steadfast South Korea-US alliance and concurred that sustainment operations are a key deciding factor in a changing security environment.
Koo noted that cooperation with the DLA, which is tasked with defence logistics support for US forces around the world, is “essential” for maintaining the combined defence posture and called for further strengthening their coordination to ensure an immediate and continued military support in the event of a contingency.
In response, Simerly said the US prioritises supply chain management through the Indo-Pacific Command to defend South Korea, which he called a key ally, and pledged to strengthen partnership with the South’s JCS.
Both sides agreed to expand and hold regular communication between the two organisations to seek ways to strengthen their cooperation, the JCS said.
Simerly arrived in South Korea on Tuesday for a three-day trip focused on assessing defence logistic circumstances for the US Forces Korea and the combined logistics posture. His trip marks the first such visit to South Korea by a DLA director.
On February 3, the top diplomats of South Korea and the United States agreed to continue close cooperation on civil nuclear power, nuclear-powered submarines and shipbuilding during their talks in Washington, the State Department said.
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also reaffirmed their commitment to the “complete” denuclearisation of North Korea, according to Tommy Pigott, the department’s principal deputy spokesperson.
Cho and Rubio held their talks at the department as Seoul is stepping up diplomatic efforts to address US President Donald Trump’s recent threat to raise “reciprocal” tariffs, and auto, lumber and pharmaceutical levies on South Korea to 25 per cent from 15 per cent.
“Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Cho discussed ways to advance the US-ROK Alliance, centered on a forward-looking agenda in the spirit of President Trump and ROK President Lee Jae Myung’s summits in Washington and Gyeongju,” Pigott said. ROK is short for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
“The two leaders agreed to continue to work closely on civil nuclear power, nuclear-powered submarines, shipbuilding and increasing ROK investments to rebuild critical US industries,” he added.
–IANS
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