Seoul, Dec 2 (UNI/Xinhua) South Korean Defence Minister Suh Wook and US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin on Thursday held their annual military talks in Seoul, according to the South Korean defence ministry.

Suh and Austin co-chaired the 53rd round of annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), agreeing to continue the bilateral cooperation for a joint promise of denuclearising the Korean Peninsula completely and settling permanent peace on the peninsula, according to the joint statement.

The defence chiefs emphasised the importance of efforts to resume diplomacy and dialogue, re-affirming that the diplomacy and dialogue would be mandatory for the complete denuclearisation of and the lasting peace settlement on the peninsula.

They agreed on a close cooperation to complete the relocation of the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) headquarters to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 km south of the capital Seoul, by next year.

The defence chiefs agreed to assess the full operational capability (FOC) in 2022 for the conditions-based handover of wartime operational control over South Korean troops from Washington to Seoul.

South Korea's wartime command was handed over to the US-led UN command after the 1950-53 Korean War broke out.

It was transferred to the US-led CFC when the command was launched in 1978. South Korea won back its peacetime operational control in 1994.
UNI/XINHUA VP PRT