▲ This file photo, taken June 11, 2022, shows Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup (R) posing for a photo with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (C) and then Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi before their trilateral talks in Singapore. (Yonhap)

S Korea-Japan-defense chiefs

Defense chiefs of S. Korea, Japan likely to hold talks in early June: sources

SEOUL, May 8 (Yonhap) -- The defense chiefs of South Korea and Japan are expected to hold bilateral talks early next month, multiple sources said Monday, as the two countries seek to bolster security cooperation following recent summit meetings between their leaders.

Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup is expected to meet his Japanese counterpart, Yasukazu Hamada, on the sidelines of this year's Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security gathering, in Singapore from June 2-4, according to the sources.

If realized, the talks would come about a month after a summit held between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, their second in less than two months, this past Sunday in Seoul.

The ministerial talks would mark the first bilateral meeting between the two countries' defense chiefs since November 2019.

The two sides are expected to discuss a range of pending security issues, including a past spat over low-altitude flybys by Japanese maritime patrol aircraft over South Korean warships in 2018 and 2019 after Tokyo's claim that a South Korean warship had locked its fire-control radar on its plane.

Seoul's defense ministry is also reportedly working to arrange separate bilateral talks with defense chiefs from the United States and China, as well as a trilateral meeting involving Washington and Tokyo at the Singapore gathering.

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