Seoul, Paris to consider additional sanctions on N.K.

South Korea and France held a defense ministerial meeting Wednesday during which they agreed to jointly consider additional sanctions against North Korea, while boosting military and defense industry cooperation between the two countries.

According to the Ministry of National Defense, South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian have agreed that Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs pose grave danger to both countries, and to discuss joint actions to counter such threats.

The two ministers said they will seek to assess the implementation of the U.N. Security Council sanctions against the North -- imposed as punitive action against its recent nuclear and missile tests -- during the information exchange dialogue, and discuss possible additional sanctions. The talks commenced in 1987 and have been held 24 times as of 2015.

The meeting, held during Han’s visit to France, also addressed increasing strategic collaborations between the two countries. This included the fields of the proliferation security initiative on weapons of mass destruction, peacekeeping operations, cybersecurity and the defense industry.

The cooperation in defense will potentially encompass joint research, development and marketing of military technology.

The memorandum of understanding will be revised within this year on the issue, the key element of which is to stipulate that Korea’s head of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration would be in charge of carrying out the agreement. It currently designates the vice defense minister to that position.

South Korea and France will seek to ink a deal on a mutual logistics support agreement, which will allow the two parties to preemptively provide war supplies necessary before payment.

Han and Le Drian also agreed to resume the defense strategic dialogue between Seoul and Paris -- suspended since 2009 -- within this year, while expanding the French troop’s participation in the military drills held in South Korea.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)