US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth expressed his desire to ensure that the South Korea-US alliance is "strategically sustainable" and the allies' defense posture contributes to deterrence against "shared threats" as he spoke by phone with his South Korean counterpart on Wednesday, the Pentagon said.
Hegseth had the first phone talks with Seoul's Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back since Ahn's inauguration last week, amid expectations that the Trump administration will request Asian allies to raise their defense spending and undertake greater security burden in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
"The secretary expressed his desire to work together to ensure that the US-ROK Alliance is strategically sustainable and that our combined posture on the (Korean) Peninsula credibly contributes to deterrence against shared threats," the Pentagon said in a readout. ROK stands for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.
"The secretary stressed the need for continuing close consultations, and looks forward to meeting Minister Ahn in person during the upcoming Security Consultative Meeting," it added, referring to the annual defense ministerial talks expected to take place in Seoul this fall.
The call came as Seoul and Washington face a series of alliance cooperation issues, including joint efforts to counter North Korea's advancing nuclear and ballistic missile threats and the role of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea amid speculation that Washington might seek to align the bilateral alliance with the Trump administration's security priorities.
The Pentagon has been working on crafting its National Defense Strategy with a focus on increasing allies' "burden sharing" and deterring what it calls the "pacing threat" from China. (Yonhap)
