Korea, U.S. to discuss military alliance future

Defense officials from South Korea and the United States will meet May 6 and 7 in Hawaii to continue consultations on the future of the two countries’ military alliance, the South Korean Defense Ministry said yesterday.
The talks will also coordinate topics that the two countries’ presidents will discuss during their meeting the following week, when President Roh Moo-hyun visits the United States.
Seoul’s assistant minister of defense for policy, Cha Young-koo, and the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, Richard Lawless, will try to set up a framework for the two national leaders to discuss, the defense officials here said.
Early this month, the two sides agreed in principle to transfer responsibility for selected missions to the South Korean military and to move the U.S. military headquarters out of central Seoul.