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Updated Tuesday, January 4, 2011 12:57 am TWN, AFP

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S.Korea, Japan to explore deeper defence cooperation

SOUL-- The defence chiefs of South Korea and Japan will hold talks in Seoul next week to discuss increasing military cooperation and how to tackle North Korea, the South's military said Tuesday.

Japanese Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa will visit South Korea from January 10 to 11 to meet his counterpart Kim Kwan-Jin and discuss regional security issues, Seoul's defence ministry said.

"The two will hold talks on January 10 to discuss measures to further develop military relations between the two countries," the spokesman told AFP.

The defence chiefs will also discuss North Korea's nuclear programme and ways to exchange intelligence about Pyongyang's activities, Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed South Korean military official.

South Korea and Japan have both signed an agreement with the United States to share classified military information but no such deal has so far been reached between Seoul and Tokyo.

"Both South Korea and Japan feel the need to sign the agreement," said the official quoted by Yonhap. If signed, it "will open a new horizon in the military relations between the two countries," he added.

Kitazawa will also visit the border truce village of Panmunjom and a naval base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometres (45 miles) south of Seoul, to see the wreck of a warship allegedly sunk in a North Korean torpedo attack in March.

Seoul, citing the results of a multinational investigation, blamed Pyongyang for the attack that killed 46 sailors -- a charge the North has angrily denied.

Regional tensions have flared up following the North's deadly shelling attack on a frontier island in November that killed four South Koreans, including two civilians.

The first attack on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War sparked a regional crisis and put neighbouring countries on heightened alert.

Seoul has staged a flurry of military exercises, including massive joint drills with the United States and a live-fire drill at the frontier island in a show of force against Pyongyang.

Japan and the United States also held their biggest-ever joint military exercise in December.

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