May 20, 2015 11:12
Korea and Japan are close to agreeing to the first meeting of their defense ministers in four years, Kyodo News reported Tuesday.
Preparations are being made for a meeting between defense ministers Han Min-koo and Gen Nakatani on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on May 30.
The defense ministerial talks were put on hold in 2011 as relations chilled due to Japan's swerve to the far right and increasingly shrill colonial claims to Korea's Dokdo islets.
The two ministers are expected to discuss pacts on the sharing of military supplies and intelligence. The two sides started negotiating the pacts in 2012 but failed to reach agreement.
A Defense Ministry official did not deny the Kyodo report and said the ministry has been "carefully considering" the meeting.
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