Military officers of S.Korea, US, Japan to meet for talks on DPRK nuke program

SEOUL - Top military commanders of South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold their first talks in Hawaii this week about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( DPRK)'s nuclear program, local broadcaster YTN reported Tuesday.

Three chairmen of their respective Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), including Adm. Choi Yun-hee, Gen. Martin Dempsey and Gen. Shigeru Iwasaki, will meet in Hawaii at 5 a.m. local time Wednesday on the sidelines of the biannual Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) multinational naval exercises.

It will be the first meeting among top military commanders of the three nations. Defense ministers of the three allies meet every year on the sidelines of the Asia security dialogue, called the Shangri-La Dialogue.

The RIMPAC, which will start on July 9, is the world's largest multinational maritime military exercise, in which the United States and Pacific Rim nations participate.

The trilateral military meeting will be held at the invitation of the United States to talk about military coordination among the three allies in dealing with the DPRK's nuclear and missile threats, said the report.

After the meeting, the three commanders reportedly plan to announce a joint statement.

The meeting was expected to raise controversy here in South Korea as Japan has refused to repent its wartime atrocities.

The Japanese government, headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, provoked South Korea recently by unveiling the results of its review on the Kono Statement, which acknowledged and apologized for its wartime sex slavery.

The results said the South Korean government intervened in the wording of the 1993 apology, indicating it was the consequence of political dealings behind the closed doors.

Historians said around 200,000 young women, mostly Koreans, were coerced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the World War II. Almost all the victims already passed away, with only 54 alive in South Korea.