DHAKA: Amid escalating threats from North Korea, US and South Korean defence officials will meet over the next few days and discuss whether to extend America’s wartime control over the South’s armed forces, 60 years after a truce ended the Korean War.

US defence secretary Chuck Hagel flew to Seoul on Sunday, and said there will be conversations about the possible extension of the 2015 deadline, but likely no decisions will be made.

‘We’re constantly re-evaluating each of our roles,’ Hagel told reporters travelling with him, according to The Straits Times.

‘That does not at all subtract from, or in any way weaken, our commitment, the United States’ commitment, to the treaty obligations that we have and continue to have with the South Koreans.’

BDST: 1650 HRS, SEPT 29, 2013
RoR/Jck