Japan, U.S., South Korea top officers vow to boost cooperation

TOKYO (Kyodo)-- The top uniformed officers of Japan, the United States and South Korea on Thursday pledged to keep boosting trilateral cooperation to achieve regional and global peace amid growing security challenges posed by China and North Korea.

General Yoshihide Yoshida, chief of the Japanese Defense Ministry's Joint Staff, and his U.S. and South Korean counterparts, General Charles Brown and Admiral Kim Myung Soo, gathered in Tokyo. It was the first time for Japan to host such talks, according to the ministry.

The highest-ranking uniformed officers agreed to "continue to strengthen trilateral security cooperation to advance peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, in the Indo-Pacific, and beyond," according to a joint statement issued after their meeting.

They urged North Korea to "cease all destabilizing activities immediately," such as its nuclear and missile development programs, and condemned its expanding military ties with Russia.

The three officers also opposed "any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force" in the Indo-Pacific region, given China's "escalatory, dangerous, and aggressive behavior supporting unlawful maritime claims" in regional waters, including the South China Sea.

Ahead of the trilateral meeting, Yoshida and Kim met bilaterally on Wednesday in Tokyo in the first such talks between the two East Asian countries in about nine years, the Japanese ministry said.

Tokyo-Seoul relations had worsened over an alleged locking of a fire-control radar on a Japanese patrol plane by a South Korean warship in 2018 among other issues. South Korea denies this.

The statement said the top uniformed officers will meet next in South Korea in 2025.