On the 31st, the Ministers of National Defense of South Korea and the United States reaffirmed the robustness of the South Korea-U.S. alliance's combined defense posture in response to North Korean threats and also decided to strengthen cooperation in areas such as shipbuilding.
The Ministry of National Defense announced that Minister Ahn Kyu-baek had his first call with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth after taking office. This marks the first official communication between the South Korean and U.S. defense ministers since the inception of the Lee Jae-myung administration.
Minister Ahn said in the call, "As the first Minister of Defense of the people's sovereign government, I bear a great responsibility to further advance the achievements of the South Korea-U.S. alliance over the past 70 years," and added, "The South Korea-U.S. alliance is a bond forged in blood and is an inseparable relationship." He continued, "I hope to deepen and advance the South Korea-U.S. alliance into a 'future-oriented comprehensive strategic alliance' through close cooperation with Minister Hegseth."
According to the Ministry of National Defense, Minister Hegseth reaffirmed the United States' ironclad commitment to South Korea's defense. The defense ministers of both countries also agreed to maintain cooperation in response to threats from North Korea, including illegal military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, and to deepen extended deterrence cooperation.
Ministers Ahn and Hegseth expressed their agreement to continue discussions aimed at mutually modernizing the South Korea-U.S. alliance in the changing regional security environment. They also agreed to further expand alliance cooperation in various fields, including maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) in the shipbuilding industry and advanced scientific technologies.
The two ministers agreed that this cooperative call was an important opportunity to broaden their understanding of each other and to further deepen and advance the South Korea-U.S. alliance, and decided to continue in-depth discussions on strengthening the alliance at an early date.