Foreign affairs and defense officials from South Korea and the US will hold high-level talks Wednesday to discuss ways to reinforce the allies’ extended deterrence against North Korea’s growing missile and nuclear threats, the South Korean government said Monday.

The second round of meetings for the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group will take place in Washington, Seoul’s defense and foreign ministries said. South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam and Vice Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk will leave for the meeting Tuesday. 

With Seoul’s two vice ministers leading the South Korea delegates, the US will be represented by Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon and Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy David Trachtenberg, Seoul’s ministries said.

The participants will focus on discussing a “comprehensive” deterrence strategy against North Korea, including extended deterrence, South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a joint statement. 

Vice Foreign Minister Lim is due to meet with John Sullivan, the US deputy secretary of state, an official from South Korea’s Foreign Ministry told reporters Monday under the customary condition of anonymity.   

The two officials are expected to discuss ways to use inter-Korean talks as an opportunity to resume suspended denuclearization talks, as the two Koreas have agreed to hold military talks and high-level dialogue to ensure Pyongyang’s participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and ease cross-border tensions.

This week’s ECDSG meeting comes after Seoul and Washington agreed to hold the ECDSG meetings on a regular basis during their summit in June last year. During a Security Consultative Meeting in October, the defense ministers of the two countries agreed to hold the ECDSG as soon as possible.

The allies held their first ECDSG meeting in December 2016. The US reiterated its pledge to offer extended deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear threat and reaffirmed its commitment to regularly deploy strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula

(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)