Despite the UN Security Council's unanimous denunciation, Mattis said, the DPRK continued provocations, posing a threat to security in the region and the world.
He promised to maintain a firm military preparedness for peace and stability on the peninsula and the defense of the two allies, saying the U.S.-South Korea alliance lasted for more than 60 years and was built on trust.
South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo, who accompanied the Pentagon chief, told reporters that nuclear and ballistic missiles the DPRK developed are weapons that cannot be used.
If the DPRK uses them, Song said, it will face retaliation by the strong combined forces of South Korea and the United States.
He strongly urged Pyongyang to stop reckless provocation and return to the inter-Korean dialogue for peace.
Song and Mattis will hold the 49th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), an annual security dialogue between South Korea and the United States, at the defense ministry's headquarters in Seoul on Saturday.
Attending the meeting will be senior defense and diplomatic officials from both sides, the Seoul ministry said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, the 42nd Military Committee Meeting (MCM) was launched in Seoul between Jeong Kyeong-doo, chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and his U.S. counterpart Joseph Dunford.
On the dialogue agenda were recent security situations, the establishment of the combined military preparedness and the transfer of conditions-based wartime operational control of South Korean forces from Washington to Seoul.
【国际英语资讯:U.S. seeks no war, but denuclearization of Korean Peninsula: defense chief】相关文章:
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