S. Korea, US to hold talks on extended deterrence next week

South Korea and the United States plan to hold high-level talks on extended deterrence next week to discuss ways to better deal with evolving North Korean threats, according to Seoul's foreign and defense ministries Friday.

The fourth meeting of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group, a gathering of the two countries' vice ministerial defense and diplomatic officials, is scheduled to take place in Seoul on Sept. 15, they said.

Seoul's vice foreign and defense ministers, Chang Ho-jin and Shin Beom-chul, respectively, will lead the South Korean side, while the US side will be headed by Bonnie Jenkins, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, and Sasha Baker, deputy undersecretary of defense for policy.

According to the ministries, the two sides plan to have comprehensive and in-depth discussions on policies and strategic cooperation to enhance their deterrence capabilities in the face of North Korea's increasingly advanced and overt nuclear and missile threats.

Extended deterrence refers to the US commitment to use all its defense capabilities, including nuclear, to help defend its allies. The two sides held their first EDSCG meeting in 2017.

After the second meeting in 2018, the EDSCG was suspended due to the then liberal Moon Jae-in administration's push for an initiative to promote inter-Korean rapprochement and cooperation.

The reactivation of the EDSCG came after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, agreed on it during their summit in May of last year as part of joint efforts to address Pyongyang's growing nuclear and missile threats. (Yonhap)