US, Japan, South Korea sign memorandum for defense cooperation

The defense chiefs of Japan, the US and South Korea on Sunday signed a memorandum to counter North Korea's "nuclear and missile threats" and other regional security challenges, Kyodo News reported.

The memorandum is aimed at institutionalizing the trilateral defense cooperation to sustain policy consultations, information-sharing and joint exercises.

"By signing this memorandum, our trilateral cooperation ... has become more solidified and will not waver, even under changes in international circumstances," Japan's Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters following his meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won Sik in Tokyo.

The agreements in the memorandum on the Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework, which has already come into effect, include those on taking turns hosting ministerial meetings every year and closely sharing real-time information about North Korean missiles, according to Kihara.

The move comes amid rising tensions in the South China Sea amid clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tokyo, Washington and Seoul have been concerned about China's maritime claims in the South China Sea, while calling for peace and stability over Taiwan, a self-ruled democratic island that Beijing sees as its "break away " province.

The three ministers, in a joint press statement, also expressed "grave concern over the increasing military and economic cooperation between North Korea and Russia, vowing to deter nuclear and missile threats posed by Pyongyang.

In a thinly-clad reference to China's assertiveness in the East and South China seas, they "strongly" opposed any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific.

Earlier, the defense chiefs of South Korea and Japan also held bilateral talks. It was the first visit by South Korea's defense chief to Japan's Defense Ministry in 15 years.