September 9, 2025
SEOUL – South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back and Japanese Minister Gen Nakatani met in Seoul on Monday, where they pledged to strengthen security cooperation and communication, as well as partnership in advanced science fields.
The meeting, held on the sidelines of the 2025 Seoul Defense Dialogue at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Yongsan, marked the first visit to South Korea by a Japanese defense minister in a decade.
In a joint press statement, both sides welcomed the timing of Monday’s meeting, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan.
Both ministers reiterated their shared commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and vowed to continue trilateral cooperation with the US against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. They also underscored the need for joint responses to the deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
Emphasizing the importance of stability in a rapidly changing security environment, the two ministers voiced support for future-oriented defense cooperation, including the exploration of “mutually beneficial (partnership) opportunities in AI, unmanned systems and space,” they said in the statement.
South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back, right, and Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani, who is visiting Korea to attend the 2025 Seoul Defence Dialogue (SDD), review an honour guard during ceremony at the Defence Ministry in Yongsan, Seoul on Monday. PHOTO: MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENCE REPUBLIC OF KOREA/THE KOREA HERALD
The ministers agreed to step up strategic communication in light of shifting regional dynamics, reaffirming commitments made between the leaders of the two countries at their bilateral summit in Tokyo last month. They pledged to expand regular consultations, reciprocal visits and personnel exchanges between their defense establishments. As part of those exchanges, South Korea’s military band will participate in the Japan Self-Defense Forces’ music festival scheduled in November.
Monday’s talks were the first meeting between the defense chiefs of South Korea and Japan in two years since July 2023 in Tokyo. During his stay in Seoul, Nakatani is scheduled to visit the Seoul National Cemetery and the Navy’s Second Fleet, where he will pay tribute to the 46 sailors killed in the 2010 sinking of the Cheonan warship by a North Korean torpedo.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
