Japan, U.S., S. Korea to meet on projectile launches by North

May 7, 2019

Tokyo--Working-level defense officials from Japan, the United States and South Korea will hold a meeting in Seoul on Thursday, Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told a press conference Tuesday.

They are expected to mainly exchange information on and analyze North Korea's launch of projectiles into the Sea of Japan on Saturday.

The meeting will be attended by Takeshi Ishikawa, deputy director-general of the Japanese Defense Ministry's Defense Policy Bureau, Randall Schriver, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, and senior

South Korean national defense policy official Chung Suk-hwan.

Also likely to be up for discussion is the resumption of defense exchange and cooperation between Japan and South Korea that have been stalled due partly to an incident last December in which a South Korean warship allegedly directed its fire-control radar at a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force patrol plane over the Sea of Japan. Jiji Press