US Defense Secretary Robert Gates will make a brief stop in Seoul when he travels next month to China and Japan, the Pentagon said Monday.
“Secretary Gates has added a brief stop in the Republic of Korea to his upcoming trip to Asia,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in a statement.
After visiting China and Japan, Gates is due to meet with his South Korean counterpart in Seoul on January 14, for talks centered on flaring tensions between the US ally and North Korea.
“They will discuss North Korea’s recent actions and consult on the way forward for the alliance to address the threats posed by North Korean provocations and its nuclear and missile programs,” Morrell said.
The South has staged a series of military exercises, including one with the United States, since the North shelled an island near the disputed Yellow Sea border last month and killed four people, including two civilians.
The North’s ruling communist party newspaper branded the exercises a “dangerous collusion” between Seoul and Washington that would lead to “destruction.”
Gates’ visit to China — North Korea’s main ally — will come a year after Beijing ended military relations with Washington in protest against a multi-billion-dollar US arms package for rival Taiwan.
The two nations have since resumed low-level military contacts at a technical level and Gates will visit at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie.
Morrell said last week that Gates would work to build a military relationship with China “that is confident in tone, cooperative in nature and comprehensive in scope.”
Gates had sought to visit in June during a regional tour but China rebuffed him.
The visit has been keenly sought by President Barack Obama’s administration, which considers the military to be the most hesitant about the United States among China’s major institutions.
During his stop in Japan, a close ally home to nearly 50,000 US troops, Gates will meet with Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa for talks on regional security developments and plans to boost the bilateral alliance.
Japan announced earlier this month a shift to upgrade its defenses in the south as it aired concern about China’s fast-growing military as well as the threat from North Korea.
The usually rock-solid alliance between the United States and Japan has experienced difficulties since last year, when a new government in Tokyo tried to renegotiate a deal on an unpopular US base.