Seoul, Washington to have talks on N. Korea, security issues

Senior U.S. government officials handling Korean affairs were to have talks with South Korean officials Monday on ways to beef up the alliance between the two countries and other pending issues such as North Korea, Seoul officials said.

Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel and Assistant Secretary of Defense David Shear arrived in Seoul on Sunday to hold talks with South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Lee Kyung-soo early Monday, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.

The U.S. officials will also have a brief meeting with Seoul's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se later.

The trip comes after a North Korean military-party delegation met South Korean high-ranking officials Saturday on a rare one-day visit to the South.

Seoul officials said that Seoul and Washington are likely to exchange views about the outcome of the recent talks with the North's delegation and their North Korean policy.

During the visit to Seoul, the U.S. officials are expected to brief their South Korean counterparts on their ongoing discussions to revise defense cooperation guidelines with Tokyo in line with Japan's move to increase the role of its military, Seoul officials added.

An interim report on the defense guidelines is likely to be released this week.

Japan has irked its neighboring countries by reinterpreting its war-renouncing Constitution to exercise the right of collective self-defense. It marks a major shift in Japan's postwar security policy as the move would allow Japan to fight alongside its allies even when not under attack itself.

South Korea has said that Japan should seek explicit consent from Seoul if it wishes to exercise such a right in cases of emergency situations related to security on the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul and Washington are also likely to fine-tune agenda items for the annual defense ministerial talks known as the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) to be held in late October, officials said.

Shear said Friday that the U.S. and South Korea are taking a "conditions-based approach" to the issue of delaying the planned transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces from Washington to Seoul.

South Korea handed over control of its forces to the U.S.

during the 1950-53 Korean War to defend against invading troops from North Korea. Peacetime control of its forces was returned in 1994, and South Korea is scheduled to get back operational control in the event of war in December 2015.

But last year, Seoul asked for another delay in the OPCON transfer following the North's nuclear test in February 2013, saying that the security situation on the peninsula was markedly different from when the transfer was agreed upon a few years ago.

Russel and Shear are expected to discuss issues, including preparations to hold a "two plus two" meeting of the foreign and defense ministers of the two countries, Seoul officials added.

Russel will fly to Japan later in the day, and Shear, who took up the post in the summer, plans to leave for Tokyo on Tuesday after meeting with Seoul's defense minister Monday. (Yonhap)