Military chiefs of S. Korea, US meet but avoid thorny issues

Adm. Kim Myung-soo, chairman of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his US counterpart, Gen. John Daniel Caine, pose for a photo at Seoul’s JCS headquarters on Thursday. (Joint Chiefs of Staff)

The top military officers of South Korea and the United States met Thursday but avoided thorny issues such as a potential increase in Seoul's payment for the stationing of US Forces Korea on the peninsula, sources close to the matter said.

Adm. Kim Myung-soo, chairman of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his US counterpart, Gen. John Daniel Caine, held a 40-minute meeting at Seoul’s JCS headquarters. Their agenda focused on updates on North Korea's military and security cooperation between the allies.

The meeting came amid heightened concerns in South Korea as US President Donald Trump has ramped up calls for Seoul to shoulder more of the costs of stationing US troops here, on Tuesday, local time. South Korea pays the US "very little" for US military support, Trump said.

It also took place as reports grow of Washington's possible plans to change the role of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea to prioritize deterring threats from China.

Thursday’s talks were held as part of a broader South Korea-US-Japan Trilateral Chief of Defense meeting scheduled from Thursday to Friday. Two separate bilateral meetings between Kim and Caine and Kim and the Chief of Staff of Japan's Joint Staff, Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, took place Thursday. The trilateral meeting involving all three generals is scheduled to be held at Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters on Friday.

Aligned with their efforts to bolster trilateral security cooperation, the three countries are in talks to hold their third round of the multi-domain Freedom Edge exercise in September, sources close to the matter said Thursday. The exercise, which kicked off in June last year, aims to better counter North Korean provocations across various military domains, including air, sea and cyberspace. The second round was held in November last year.

The latest trilateral meeting among the chiefs of defense marks the first of its kind since the start of the Lee Jae Myung administration in June.

Caine's visit marks the first visit to South Korea by the highest-ranking US military officer since his predecessor, CQ Brown, visited Seoul in November 2023.