Washington: South Korea and the United States plan to hold their key regular defense talks at the Pentagon next week, a Pentagon spokesperson said Thursday. This development indicates that the allies are maintaining close security cooperation under the Trump administration.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD) is scheduled to occur at the Pentagon on Thursday and Friday. The upcoming meeting will be the first KIDD gathering since U.S. President Donald Trump assumed office in January. "The Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue will occur next week and there will be a joint press statement release after the meeting," the spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency via email.
KIDD, launched in 2011, serves as a comprehensive senior-level defense meeting between the allies. The meeting is expected to address various bilateral security policy cooperation issues, including reinforcing deterrence against evolving North Korean nuclear and missile threats and the allies' combined defense posture.
The planned meeting comes amid concerns that a political transition period in Seoul, following the ouster of President Yoon Suk Yeol, could negatively impact the allies' security coordination. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recent trip to the Indo-Pacific, which included stops in Japan and the Philippines but not South Korea, and his predecessor Lloyd Austin's cancellation of the Korea portion of his Asia swing in December, have added to worries over defense collaboration.
Regarding the future operation of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG), the allies' key nuclear deterrence body, the spokesperson stated, "NCG deliberations are ongoing." Earlier this week, an official in Seoul mentioned that Seoul and Washington will continue the NCG under the Trump administration, with its next meeting set to occur as early as June.
The NCG, launched by former President Yoon and former U.S. President Joe Biden following their April 2023 summit, aims to strengthen the U.S. "extended deterrence" commitment to defending South Korea with all of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons.