Senior officials of South Korea and the United States held meetings in Washington on Thursday on the sidelines of the two nations' annual Security Consultative Meeting(SCM).

Ko Yun-ju, director general of the ministry's North American Affairs Bureau, met with U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Korea and Japan Marc Knapper and other officials from the State Department. 

According to Seoul's Foreign Ministry, the director general and the deputy assistant secretary reaffirmed the solid South Korea-U.S. alliance as a linchpin of regional peace and stability and discussed bilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

The ministry said the two sides also exchanged opinions on the so-called "Alliance Dialogue," a new bilateral channel to discuss alliance issues. 

Last month, South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun visited Washington for talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun. 

After the talks, Choi said the two sides agreed to establish the "Alliance Dialogue," a working-level consultation body between director-level officials from the two countries' foreign ministries.