well u.s secretary of state anthony
blinken has landed in south korea
on the second stop of a tour to reset
relations with
asian allies lincoln arrived in seoul
from japan
pushing the bite administration's agenda
to keep a lid on the growing power of
china he also reaffirmed washington's
commitment to the complete
denuclearization of the korean peninsula
but
ahead of his trip the powerful sister of
north korean leader kim jong-un warned
washington
not to interfere in the region
let's get more now from correspondent
frank smith he's standing
outside the defense ministry in seoul
and
is covering blinken's visit frank what
can we expect from this meeting today
well they're going to talk about a few
things first off they just concluded 10
days of
military exercises these were command
post exercises
which took place indoors largely
computer simulated although they did
utilize a number of troops from both
south korea
and the us they want to conduct probably
some more training
outdoors now those large-scale outdoor
exercises that would involve
aircraft and heavy munitions and and
tens of thousands of troops on each side
had been particularly thorny in
aggravating north korea and that's why
they've largely been toned down they're
also going to talk about
what's called the opcon transfer which
would give
south korea control over its own troops
during wartime but that's been held up
because of the ongoing tension here on
the korean peninsula
okay so it sounds like there's a lot of
focus on defense
issues the u.s is also urging its allies
in the region to
help it push back against china are the
interests of america
and its allies there particularly south
korea fully aligned in this regard
no they're not exactly um on the same
page
um south korea's largest trading partner
is china by far and it doesn't want to
antagonize
beijing and jeopardize that trade back
in 2016 2017 south korea deployed the
american anti-ballistic missile system
fad
terminal high altitude area defense in a
place called songzhu in the middle of
the peninsula
beijing reacted with unofficial
sanctions
against south korea's entertainment and
tourism industry
certainly uh president moon jae-in here
in south korea doesn't want to see that
kind of
retaliation repeated if it was to put
more pressure
on beijing over issues that are perhaps
more important to washington
now this is the biden administration's
first cabinet-level visit
to the korean peninsula it follows four
turbulent
years of the trump presidency during
which
trump tried to engage with north korea
where do things stand now between
washington and pyongyang
well you know recently just a day or so
ago
kim jong-un that's the ruler of north
korea his sister or sorry
his sister kim yo-jung told
the us to not make a stink
uh regarding uh any activity by north
korea or military exercises
by north korea uh indicating
a thaw and sort of any potential for
talks in fact
the biden administration early on
reached out to north korea to try to
bring them to the negotiating table
but because of the downfall in terms of
you know the so-called love affair
between kim jong-un and former u.s
president
donald trump the failure of the hanoi
summit in vietnam to
to really break through uh
the ongoing sanctions against north
korea pyongyang
doesn't seem to be really interested in
talking
frank thank you very much that was
correspondent frank smith at the defense
ministry in seoul