S Korea, US, Japan discuss security cooperation against N Korea threats

South Korea's top military officer has held video talks with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts to discuss trilateral efforts for security cooperation to counter North Korean military threats.

The talks among Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Adm. Kim Myung-soo, and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, respectively, took place amid concerns over Pyongyang's continued weapons tests this year, Yonhap News Agency reported on March 28.

"(The three sides) agreed that the DPRK's (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) provocative actions including nuclear and missile developments reflect the importance of increasing the depth, scale, and scope of trilateral cooperation," the JCS said in an English-language release.

The three sides noted the efforts underway to bolster security cooperation, such as launching a system to share North Korean missile warning data in real-time and establishing a multiyear plan for trilateral military drills last December, the JCS said.

Brown also reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defending South Korea and Japan, and the three recognized that trilateral cooperation helps ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, according to the JCS.

The three sides are set to hold their regular in-person meeting this summer.

Last week, the North claimed to have staged a ground engine test for a new intermediate-range hypersonic missile, after test-firing a purported solid-fuel hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile in January.