SINGAPORE, May 31 (Reuters) – South Korea and Japan discussed the possibility of a military-logistics support agreement on Sunday, Seoul’s defense chief said, adding that Seoul remains cautious about the politically sensitive pact.
“It requires the understanding and persuasion of the citizens of both nations, and I believe we should still proceed with caution,” Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back told reporters after meeting his counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi at the Shangri-La Dialogue of regional defence officials in Singapore on Saturday.
Ahn was referring to a potential acquisition and cross-servicing agreement, which would allow neighbouring U.S. allies Seoul and Tokyo to share and mutually procure military logistics such as fuel, food and ammunition.
South Korea has been cautious about a deal, given persistent grievances over Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule and public resistance to the possibility of Japanese troops operating on the Korean Peninsula.
Calls to Japan’s Ministry of Defense and Prime Minister’s Office seeking comment went unanswered outside business hours.
Meanwhile, the Japanese defense ministry said in a statement that Koizumi and Ahn discussed conducting a joint humanitarian search and rescue exercise in June, for the first time in about nine years.
(Reporting by Rae Wee in Singapore and Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul; Additional reporting by Kevin Buckland in Tokyo; Editing by William Mallard)
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