SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korea and the United States will hold a new round of military talks in late March at South Korean resort island of Jeju to review the progress of their program to shape a new alliance, a South Korean high-ranking official said Thursday.

    "During the two-day talks from Tuesday, we agreed to continue to exchange views on pending issues and hold a new round of talks in late March," Ahn Kwang-chan, South Korean assistant defense minister for policy, was quoted as saying by South Korean Yonhap News Agency after returning from Guam.

    Ahn just returned from Guam, where the two countries held the sixth round of the Security Policy Initiative (SPI) meeting.

    According to Ahn, in the new round of bilateral military talks, the two sides will again focus on hammering out readjustment of their military alliance, including Seoul's demand for regaining the wartime operational right of its own military from the United States Forces Korea (USFK).

    South Korea voluntarily put the operational control of its military under the American-led U.N. command shortly after the Korean War (1950-1953) broke out.

    It regained the peacetime control of its forces in 1994, but wartime operational control remains in the hands of the commander of the USFK.

    The SPI is the main consultation channel between the two to discuss the format of their military alliance.

    The U.S. currently stations 30,000 soldiers in South Korea, but plans to cut the number to 25,000 by 2008.

    In the new round of military talks, South Korean chief delegate will change as Ahn was already appointed by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun as chairman of the Emergency Planning Commission on Wednesday. Who will assume Ahn's job is not known currently.

    U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless will lead the U.S. delegation to the fresh round of talks as he did before. Enditem