Defense ministers of US, South Korea, Japan hold trilateral meeting

By Ayse Irem Tirkayi

The defense ministers of the US, South Korea and Japan held a trilateral meeting on Sunday to discuss shared regional security concerns and to review the implementation of security cooperation.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts Shin Won-sik and Minoru Kihara agreed to simultaneously share missile warning data on North Korea starting next month, according to a statement from the US Defense Department.

The meeting, which addressed North Korea's escalating nuclear activities, involved Austin and Shin in person from Seoul, South Korea, and Kihara joined online.

The mechanism enabling the simultaneous sharing of missile warning data aimed at countering Pyongyang’s threats was discussed and an agreement was reached to fully operationalize it by the end of December after the testing phase.

The meeting comes after the leaders of the US, South Korea and Japan gathered at Camp David in the US for a trilateral summit on Aug. 18 to address the threat posed by North Korea.

Following the summit, a commitment was made to expand trilateral cooperation between the three nations in various areas to counter security threats in the Pacific.