South Korea will hold a working-level defense policy meeting with Japan this week to discuss regional security and cooperation on the defense segment, the Defense Ministry said Monday.

The 21st round of the South Korea-Japan working-level defense policy conference will be held Wednesday at the ministry in Seoul, with the South Korean side headed by Yoon Soon-ku, the ministry's director general on international policy, and the Japanese side headed by his counterpart, Atsuo Suzuki, the ministry said in a statement.

This forthcoming meeting marks the resumption of the neighbors' working-level defense dialogue channel, which was suspended last year due to worsening disputes stemming from their shared history, including Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

The 20th round of talks was held in Tokyo in March 2013.

Agenda items include regional security, defense policies of the two countries and cooperation on issues of mutual interest.

The officials may delve into Japan's moves to reconfigure its national security laws and other rearmament steps in recent years as the meeting reopens after more than two years.

South Korea may use the venue to raise its long-held voice that Japan's recovery of its collective self-defense right should not affect issues pertaining to the Korean Peninsula unless South Korea makes a request, a government source said on condition of anonymity.

The officials, however, will not discuss the signing of any military agreements with Japan during the session, defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a regular briefing.

"There's no plan to discuss a General Security of Military Information Agreement or Cross-Servicing Agreement," Kim noted.

During the session, the Japanese side is likely to propose a visit by Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani to South Korea this year although the South Korean side maintains that it is inappropriate in terms of timing. (Yonhap)