Page 379 - 2018 Defense White Paper

Appendix 15
Joint Statement in Commemoration of

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the 50 Security Consultative Meeting

October 26, 2018

On October 31, 2018, Republic of Korea (ROK) Minister of National Defense Jeong Kyeongdoo and U.S.
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Secretary of Defense James Mattis will co-host the 50 Annual ROK-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting
(SCM). The SCM has played a critical role in deterring war on the Korean Peninsula and developing the
ROK-U.S. Alliance for the past half-century, and thereby has become a symbolic annual security consultative
body between the two governments.

The SCM originated in 1968 as the “Annual ROK-U.S. Defense Official Meeting” which focused on mutual
defense issues amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula caused by North Korea’s seizure of the
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USS Pueblo. Since the 4 Meeting in 1971, the status of the SCM was raised to an annual government-level
security consultative body with participation from foreign affairs officials, and the name of the meeting was

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changed to the ROK-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting. This year marks its 50 anniversary.

Over the past 50 years, the SCM has played a central role in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean
Peninsula while reinforcing the ironclad ROK-U.S. Alliance. An important achievement of the SCM was that it
mutually decided to establish the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) at the 10 SCM in 1977 and
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established the CFC in the subsequent year. Additionally, the SCM created the Military Committee Meeting
(MCM) in 1978. This laid the foundation of the systematic and efficient combined defense system whereby
the SCM, MCM, and CFC realize directives given by each country’s national command authority. The CFC
is the most robust and seamlessly-integrated combined defense system in the world and celebrates its 40
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anniversary this year. The MCM is the highest military consultative body presided over by the two countries’
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respective chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the 43 MCM was held on October 25, 2018.

The SCM is the main consultation channel for future development of the ROK-U.S. Alliance, and its work
has greatly added to the development of a robust Alliance. Amid the ever-changing security situation on the
Korean Peninsula, at every SCM, the two countries reaffirm the ironclad U.S. commitment to the defense of

Appendix 377