SEOUL, Oct. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korean and US defense chiefs kicked off a one-day meeting on Friday morning to discuss the readjustment of the US Forces Korea (USFK) and other issues of mutual concern.

    US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung attended the annual Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul.

    Details of the meeting were not known immediately.

    The two defense chiefs are scheduled to hold a joint press conference later in the day.

    Rumsfeld flew to Seoul on Thursday afternoon from Beijing. He also planned to meet South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon before leaving South Korea on Saturday.

    South Korean officials said earlier that the main topic of the meeting was their country's wish to assume a greater role in defending itself. The issue has been discussed for several years between the two sides.

    The United States has already returned several key security missions to allow South Korea to assume more responsibilities in its national defense and agreed to discuss shifting back its wartime operational control of South Korean troops to the host nation.

    South Korea transferred the operational control of its military to the US-led UN command shortly after the Korean War (1950-1953) broke out in 1950.

    South Korea took back the peacetime operational control of its forces in 1994 but its wartime control remains in the hands of commander of the USFK.

    The United States currently has 32,500 troops here, and will cut further 7,500 troops before 2008. Enditem