Meeting In Singapore, South Korean Defense Minister, US And Japan Face North Korean Threats

Illustration of South Korea and Japan (Photo: Doc. Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Three countries, namely South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold a Trilateral meeting in Singapore, on Saturday, June 3.

The three of them, who will be represented by the Ministers of Defense, are trying to increase cooperation against the growing military threat from North Korea.

Citing Antara, the meeting between South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup and Lloyd Austin from the United States and Yasukazu Hamada from Japan will take place on the sidelines of Shangri-La Dialogue.

This meeting comes as the atmosphere becomes tense as North Korea launches a failed space rocket on Wednesday this week.

The negotiations will discuss a better response to North Korea's threats, such as by building a North Korean missile warning system and expanding three-way security exercises.

The three countries have been working to improve the data-sharing agreement that President Yoon Suk Yeol, President Joe Biden, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reached at a trilateral summit in Cambodia last November.

Currently, steps to share missile warning data are being carried out by the South Korean military and US troops in the country, apart from Japan's Self-Defense Forces and US Troops in Japan.

The three countries seek to distribute data based on a trilateral agreement to share information signed in 2014.

Trilateral cooperation is the right choice for the three countries after Pyongyang's provocation earlier this year, including the launch of the April intercontinental ballistic missile.

Last year, the North Korean regime fired missiles in incredible numbers.

Next on the same day, Lee will hold separate negotiations with his colleague with Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu to discuss how to continue the high-level dialogue and the level of work that has stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bilateral negotiations come as Seoul tries to get closer to Washington to face North Korea's threats and other regional and global security challenges that arise amid China-US competition that is getting fiercer.