REUTERS
September 8, 2025 at 11:15 JST
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani enters the prime minister’s office on Aug. 5, 2025. (Takeshi Iwashita)
SEOUL--The South Korean and Japanese defense ministers will hold talks in Seoul on Monday, Seoul’s defense ministry said, marking the first official visit by a Japanese defense minister to South Korea in a decade.
The talks take place amid heightened geopolitical tensions in the region and after a show of force by China during a huge military parade last week attended by North Korea’s leader.
Japan’s Gen Nakatani will meet South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-Back on Monday afternoon, the ministry said.
During his two-day trip, Nakatani will visit the Seoul National Cemetery and the Korean Navy 2nd Fleet.
Talks between the U.S. allies come after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Beijing last week to attend a military parade held by China to commemorate the end of World War II.
At the parade, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin flanked Chinese President Xi Jinping. It was the first time the North Korean leader has attended such a large multilateral diplomatic event and was seen by analysts as a propaganda win for the isolated nuclear-armed state.
Last month, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with Japanese Prime Minister Shiegeru Ishiba in Tokyo where they agreed on forming closer security and economic ties. Ishiba resigned on Sunday, ushering in a potentially lengthy period of policy uncertainty for the world’s fourth-largest economy.
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