Defense officials from South Korea and the U.S. agreed to expand the scope of information-sharing on wartime operations as they sought to bolster responses to North Korea’s nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction(WMD).

Kim Sung-koo, deputy chief of the South Korean defense ministry's policy planning bureau, and Richard Johnson, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and countering WMD policy, led the counter-WMD committee meeting in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday.

Aside from extended information-sharing, the allies agreed to strengthen cooperation in planning procedures to minimize damage from the North's nuclear weapons and other WMDs, protect the alliance and maintain wartime execution functions.

The two sides agreed on the need to jointly respond to potential biological threats in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic with expanded participation by government agencies in next year's combined training on chemical, biological and nuclear threats.

[Photo : YONHAP News]