S. Korea, U.S. eye expanding naval shipbuilding, repair cooperation to military aircraft

By Lee Minji

SEOUL, May 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States have recently discussed the possibility of expanding their cooperation in the areas of naval shipbuilding and maintenance to military aircraft, the South's defense ministry said Wednesday.

The discussion took place when the allies held their Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD) in Washington last week and agreed to cooperate to strengthen the alliance and achieve shared security goals on the Korean Peninsula and across the Indo-Pacific region, according to the ministry.

"South Korea sufficiently explained to the U.S. its capabilities, technologies and determination ... and the U.S. welcomed the suggestion," the ministry said in a written briefing on the issue of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and shipbuilding.

"Our side also proposed expanding naval MRO cooperation to shipbuilding and both sides concurred on seeking MRO cooperation for aircraft," the ministry said.

During last week's meeting, the two sides reaffirmed their joint goal of the "complete denuclearization" of North Korea and expressed grave concerns over the North's advancing nuclear and missile threats and illegal military cooperation with Russia.

The allies concurred on the importance of continuously strengthening their combined drills against the North's threats and seeking ways to bolster extended deterrence capabilities through the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG), the ministry said.

South Korea and the U.S. launched the NCG following the April 2023 summit between former President Yoon Suk Yeol and former U.S. President Joe Biden to strengthen the credibility of the U.S. extended deterrence commitment.

In the meeting, both sides also reaffirmed their commitment for the systemic and stable transfer of conditions-based wartime operational control (OPCON) to Seoul and keeping up the momentum of their trilateral security cooperation with Japan.

The allies have held the KIDD meeting once or twice a year since it was launched in 2011 as a comprehensive senior-level defense meeting.

The latest KIDD talks, the first such meeting since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, took place as Seoul and Washington have been seeking to strengthen their naval shipbuilding and maintenance cooperation.

mlee@yna.co.kr
(END)