Gyeryong: South Korea's Navy chief held talks with his Turkish counterpart Tuesday to discuss ways to bolster their bilateral defense and arms cooperation, officials said. Adm. Yang Yong-mo and Adm. Ercument Tatlioglu discussed issues ranging from high-level personnel exchange to manned and unmanned combat systems, as well as multi-domain maritime security, at the meeting held at the Navy headquarters in Gyeryong, some 145 kilometers south of Seoul.
According to Yonhap News Agency, ahead of the talks, Adm. Tatlioglu paid a courtesy call to Adm. Kim Myung-soo, chief of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Monday. They discussed ways to strengthen bilateral defense cooperation between their nations. As part of his itinerary, Adm. Tatlioglu also visited the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan, about 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to honor fallen Turkish soldiers who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War.
Turkey sent about 21,000 troops to the Korean War, of which 462 are laid to rest at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery. It marked Adm. Tatlioglu's first visit to South Korea and the sixth such visit by the chief of Turkish naval forces.