S. Korea, U.S. Armies sign 'strategic vision' statement to broaden cooperation

SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- The Army chiefs of South Korea and the United States have signed a "strategic vision" statement to broaden areas of their cooperation to include space security and other novel areas, officials here said Friday.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Park Jeong-hwan and his U.S. counterpart Gen. James C. McConville inked it at the U.S. Army's headquarters at the Pentagon on Wednesday (Washington time). Park visited the country Saturday for a nine-day trip.

The statement outlines security cooperation between the two sides in areas such as military science, technology and space, in line with efforts to upgrade bilateral ties to a "global comprehensive strategic alliance" as agreed by their leaders in a summit in May last year.

Following the document's signing, Park held discussions with U.S. Army generals on ways to boost ties as well as deepen exchange and cooperation.

The previous day, Park met with Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, commander of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), at the unit in Alabama, according to the U.S. Army.

"Through our visit to SMDC, we would like to expand our space field exchanges and cooperation with the U.S. Army to draw a blueprint for ROK army space power," Park was quoted as saying. ROK stands for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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