South Korea, U.S. hold talks on KF-X technology transfer

South Korea and U.S. defense officials held the first round of high-level talks of the Defense Technology Strategy and Cooperation Group Tuesday, the Pentagon announced.

The group was established last year.

The talks in Washington, D.C., included Korean National Defense Vice Minister Hwang In-moo, and Lee Tae-ho, the Foreign Affairs Ministry's deputy economic affairs minister.

Ambassador David Shear and Rose Gottemoeller, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs, co-chaired the meeting for the U.S. side.

The group's inaugural high-level meeting follows working-level talks held in March.

"The two sides discussed the intersection of foreign and national security policy on defense technology cooperation," a joint press release stated.

Korean officials delivered briefings on security policy and cooperation issues, while the U.S. side provided an overview of conventional arms transfer and regional defense trade policies.

Both sides agreed on the need for regular information sharing on the issues.

The two delegations also agreed to hold more high-level talks in 2017.

Yonhap reported Wednesday that the transfer of jet technologies for Seoul's efforts to develop its own fighter jets under the KF-X program were also discussed.

That project aims to replace the republic's aging fleet of F-4 and F-5 jets.