S. Korea, Japan to hold defense policy meeting first in over 2 years: Seoul

Senior military officials from South Korea and Japan will hold a working-level meeting on defense policy this week in Seoul for the first time in more than two years, the South Korean defense ministry said on Monday.

The 21st round of such meeting will be held on Wednesday at the South Korean defense ministry's headquarters in Seoul. It has been haulted since the last was held in Tokyo in March 2013.

The South Korean side would be headed by Yoon Soon-ku, the ministry's director general on international policy, while the Japanese delegation would be led by Atsuo Suzuki.

The ministry said regional security and bilateral defense policy as well as military exchanges and cooperation would be discussed during the upcoming meeting, but it declined to comment on detailed agendas.

The two sides are widely expected to exchange views on Japan's exercise of the right to collective self-defense as Japan's lower house of bicameral Diet railroaded security legislation's despite strong opposition at home and from neighboring countries.

The security bills are aimed at allowing Japan's Self-Defense Forces to join military conflicts overseas for its allies even when Japan's territory is not attacked, triggering criticism at home as it violates Japan's pacifist constitution.

The South Korea-Japan defense policy meeting is a director general-level dialogue channel, which was launched in 1994 to annually discuss defense policy between defense ministries of the two nations.

In 2014, the meeting was not held amid frayed ties between Seoul and Tokyo over historical issues including the sexual slavery during the World War Two. Endi