SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States held telephone talks Thursday night to discuss the Korean Peninsula issues, local media reports said Friday, citing Seoul's defense ministry.
South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, who assumed the office last week, agreed over the phone with his U.S. counterpart James Mattis to maintain close cooperation and communication in the process of implementing the inter-Korean military agreement.
The military agreement was signed by the defense chiefs of South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) during the Pyongyang summit last week between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un.
Under the agreement, the two Koreas agreed to establish tens of kilometers of buffer zones on land, in waters and the air near the border, which left the peninsula divided, in a bid to stop all hostile acts toward each other.
During the phone dialogue, Jeong and Mattis shared a view that close cooperation between the military authorities of the allies would be important than ever under the changing security situations on the peninsula.
The defense chiefs also discussed preparations for the 50th round of the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), an annually-held ministerial security dialogue between South Korea and the United States, which is scheduled for Oct. 31 in Washington.
