Japan has asked South Korea to hold defense ministers' talks next month amid soured bilateral ties over historical and territorial issues, defense ministry officials here said Friday.
Japan "made the request to our side to hold the ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the planned Shangri-La Dialogue," a Seoul official said, requesting anonymity, citing the annual regional defense ministers' talks slated for next month in Singapore.
"We are reviewing that carefully," the official said, adding no consultation has taken place with Japan over the matter.
Top defense chiefs of the neighbors last met face-to-face in June 2011, though they have sat down for talks on a regular basis under a trilateral format with the United States.
"Japan has stated its desire several times to hold defense ministers' meetings with South Korea," another Seoul official said.
"We will make a decision on the matter in consideration of diverse security and diplomatic aspects."
The development comes at a time when the Seoul-Tokyo relations have been badly hurt after Japan's renewed territorial claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo and Japan's failure to apologize for the forced enslavement of Asian women, mostly Koreans, for its soldiers during World War II.
Despite tensions, South Korea and Japan are scheduled to hold so-called 2+2 talks, involving two senior foreign affairs and defense officials from each side, in Seoul next week, the first high-level security talks in more than five years. (Yonhap)
