The defence ministers of South Korea and the US have discussed the future of their joint military drills after the US president said they would be ending.
Donald Trump made the surprise announcement following his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The US has insisted its alliance with Seoul – which has always said the drills are essential – is “iron clad”.
Separately, South and North Korea have said they will completely restore their military communication lines.
There are about 29,000 US soldiers based in South Korea and each year the two countries regularly conduct large scale military drills, often called war games.
The next joint drill was scheduled for this autumn.
But following his talks with Kim Jong-un in Singapore, Mr Trump described the drills as “very provocative” – contradicting previous US administrations' insistence that the drills are purely defensive – and said he was ending them.
South Korean Defence Minister Song Young-moo on Thursday held talks with his US counterpart James Mattis to discuss the exercises.
The two agreed to “continuously strengthen efforts to provide defence support, based on the solid South Korea-US alliance,” the South Korean defence ministry said.
Mr Song said the two allies should be “flexible” about how much military pressure…
