Anchor: The heads of South Korea and the U.S.’ Joint Chiefs of Staff have spoken over the phone for the first time since the launch of the Donald Trump administration last month. The two sides emphasized the implementation of extended deterrence, including the deployment of U.S. strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula. 
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) Chairman General Lee Sun-jin and his U.S. counterpart General Joseph Dunford held telephone talks Wednesday morning.

According to the South Korean JCS, the two commanders agreed during their 20-minute talks to ensure a strong combined defense posture to deter North Korea’s provocations. 

The two sides reaffirmed the agreements reached by the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group in Washington late last year, during which they discussed the deployment of the U.S.' strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula.
 
The JCS in Seoul explained that the discussions about the strategic assets do not entail their immediate deployment. 

The South Korean military believes that the North will likely engage in provocation either around its former leader Kim Jong-il's birthday on February 16th or around South Korea and the U.S.' annual combined military exercise next month.
 
The JCS said Wednesday’s telephone talks prove the two sides' intentions to launch strong measures against possible North Korean provocations.

During the talks, General Lee also underlined the need to install THAAD within the year. 
 
With both JCS heads vowing to build a strong combined defense posture, attention is being drawn to what kind of U.S. strategic weapons will appear on the peninsula during the planned combined military drill next month.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.

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