The defense chiefs of South Korea and the U.S. discussed the allies' joint military exercises, following U.S. President Donald Trump's recent remarks that he will stop "provocative war games." 

The Defense Ministry in Seoul said Friday that Minister Song Young-moo and his U.S. counterpart James Mattis held 30 minutes of telephone talks from 7:30 p.m. on Thursday to exchange views on the exercises, including the Ulchi Freedom Guardian(UFG) set for August. 

During the discussions, Song said that should talks with North Korea proceed well, there would be a need for "flexible change" as to military pressure on the North in line with the April 27th inter-Korean summit declaration, which called for confidence-building measures. 

The ministry said in a press release that the two officials agreed to continuously strengthen efforts to provide defense support, based on the solid South Korea-U.S. alliance, for the faithful and expeditious implementation of the agreement from the North Korea-U.S. summit.

[Photo : YONHAP News]