Top air force commanders of South Korea, US, Japan discuss cooperation

Seoul, Nov 22 The top air force commanders of South Korea, the United States and Japan have held talks to discuss ways to strengthen their cooperation, such as expanding joint air drills, officials said, the latest in their trilateral security cooperation amid North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

In the talks over video-conferencing held Thursday, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Lee Young-su, and his US and Japanese counterparts, Gen. David W. Allvin and Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, respectively, vowed to continuously cooperate to deter the North's evolving threats and hold regular talks, Yonhap news agency reported quoting South's Air Force.

In what marked their first meeting via teleconference, the top Air Force commanders also reviewed their joint air drills and discussed ways to expand such exercises going forward.

Since holding a joint air exercise for the first time in October last year, South Korea, the US and Japan have held six rounds of such drills, including those conducted during the trilateral multidomain Freedom Edge exercise launched this year.

Earlier this month, the three nations held combined air drills, involving a B-1B bomber, in a show of force following North Korea's new intercontinental ballistic missile launch on October 31.