(KUNA) -- Military chiefs from South Korea and the US agreed Wednesday to continue joint drills to effectively deter North Korean aggression and refine Seoul's leading role in dealing with local provocations, giving the South more authority in the case of future attacks by the North, media reported.In a joint statement issued after their talks in Seoul, Gen. Han Min-koo of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff and his US counterpart Adm. Mike Mullen said they "agreed to primarily refine the ROK-supported, US-supporting plans for local provocation in order for the alliance to resolutely respond to further North Korean aggression," according to Yonhap News Agency.
Han and Mullen also "agreed to continue combined exercises designed to effectively deter North Korean aggression and strengthen the joint capabilities to respond," the statement said.
As the talks between Han and Mullen were underway, distant sounds of artillery fire were heard from North Korea near the tense Yellow Sea border. Yonhap said the sounds appeared to be coming from the North's routine drills, citing the South's military officials. No shells fell south of Korea's maritime border, it said.
Military tensions on the Korean Peninsula spiked to one of their highest levels in decades following the North's artillery assault on Yeonpyeong Island on November 23 near the Yellow Sea border. The brazen assault marked the first time North Korea has targeted a civilian area on the South's territory since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The two sides "acknowledged that the artillery fire on Yeonpyeong was a deliberate and illegal armed attack which violates the UN charter and armistice agreement" that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, the statement said.
Just days after the attack, South Korea and the US conducted four days of high-profile naval drills off the Yellow Sea with a US aircraft carrier participating. About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War that ended with a cease-fire, leaving the peninsula technically still at war.
In his separate meeting on Wednesday with Seoul's military leaders and other brass hats, including Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, Mullen said the US wants China to play a "very important" role in trying to rein in North Korea and deterring the communist state from any future provocations.
China, about the only nation with any influence on North Korea, has been under increasing pressure to do more in curbing the North's military aggression.