U.S., South Korea aim to disrupt North Korea provocations

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy met with officials in Seoul to discuss strategies against North Korean provocations.

Sung Kim, the former U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks, said the United States and South Korea had reached a critical moment regarding North Korea, Yonhap reported.

Kim was in South Korea to attend the eighth annual Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Alliance, or KIDD conference, and to prepare points of discussion with South Korea counterparts ahead of a summit between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama.

Park and Obama are expected to meet Oct. 16 at the White House.

In a meeting with South Korea's 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yong, Kim and Cho had agreed the first priority was the suppression of North Korea provocations. In the case of provocations, both sides reaffirmed that solid cooperation would be necessary between Washington and Seoul.

South Korean newspaper Maeil Business reported a recently established U.S.-South Korea Deterrence Strategic Committee has outlined a plan to deal with North Korea provocations that could be summarized as the "4 Ds": detect, defend, disrupt and destroy.

The concepts were under discussion at the KIDD conference along with plans to deal with future North Korea nuclear tests and long-range missile launches.