{"id":12513,"date":"2026-10-30T07:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=12513"},"modified":"2026-10-30T07:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:09:08","slug":"defense-minister-says-hegseth-dismissed-talk-of-alliance-strains-as-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=12513","title":{"rendered":"Defense minister says Hegseth dismissed talk of alliance strains as ‘fake news’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul, right, poses with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during their meeting on the sidelines of the 13th ASEAN Defense Ministers\u2019 Meeting-Plus in Cebu, Philippines, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of National Defense <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul said Friday that U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had dismissed recent speculation about strains in the Korea-U.S. alliance as \u201cfake news\u201d during their meeting earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Kang made the remarks to reporters as he arrived at the defense ministry in Seoul after attending the ASEAN Defense Ministers\u2019 Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the two sides had any disagreements, Kang said there were none.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecretary Hegseth dismissed all the talk going around as \u2018fake news,\u2019\u201d Kang said. \u201cAnd I agree with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe such talk can shake the strength of the Korea-U.S. alliance, nor should it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Kang and Hegseth held their first face-to-face meeting Wednesday in Cebu, Philippines, on the sidelines of ADMM-Plus. The meeting lasted about 40 minutes, longer than the 15 minutes initially scheduled.<\/p>\n

Their talks came amid concerns about the state of the alliance, including the postponement of the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), differences over the timeline for transferring wartime operational control (OPCON) and reports of restrictions on intelligence sharing.<\/p>\n

The two sides agreed to hold another defense ministers\u2019 meeting in Washington in December and postpone the SCM until early next year.<\/p>\n

Asked whether Washington had agreed to complete the full operational capability (FOC) verification for the OPCON transfer at the next SCM, Kang stopped short of giving a direct answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest achievement was that we agreed to work together on the OPCON transfer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also declined to confirm whether the U.S. had agreed to Seoul\u2019s proposed 2028 target for the transfer.<\/p>\n

On reports that Washington had restricted some intelligence sharing with Seoul concerning North Korea, Kang played down the issue, saying it affected only a small portion of military intelligence exchanges.<\/p>\n

He said the matter was not discussed during Wednesday\u2019s meeting, reiterating that the talks had reaffirmed the strength of the alliance.<\/p>\n

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Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul, right, poses with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during their meeting on the sidelines of the 13th ASEAN Defense Ministers\u2019 Meeting-Plus in Cebu, Philippines, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of National Defense Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul said Friday that U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had dismissed recent speculation about strains in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","category-trending-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t