Japan and South Korea plan to step up military ties, despite historical animosities, to face jointly the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea, officials and media reports said Tuesday.

Their defence ministers will hold talks in Seoul next week to discuss deeper cooperation, the South's military said, as Japanese media also reported plans for a summit meeting of national leaders in the spring.

Regional tensions have flared since North Korea's shelling of a frontier island in November that killed four South Koreans, including two civilians, the first such artillery attack since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The United States has since then staged major military drills with both its allies South Korea and Japan in waters near North Korea, and has also urged trilateral military cooperation between them in future.

Japan's Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and his counterpart Kim Kwan-Jin will meet Monday "to discuss measures to further develop military relations between the two countries," a South Korean defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

South Korea has long been reluctant to work closely with Japan's military as memories run deep of Japanese aggression on the Korean peninsula from its annexation in 1910 until the end of World War II.

Japanese media reported that Seoul and Tokyo have been discussing a so-called Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, under which their militaries would cooperate in peacekeeping, relief operations and drills.

Japan has already signed similar pacts with Australia and the United States, which oblige their armed forces to share fuel, parts, food and water and to cooperate in areas such as maintenance and medical work.

The defence chiefs will also discuss North Korea's nuclear programme and ways to exchange intelligence about Pyongyang's activities, Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed South Korean military official.

South Korea and Japan have both signed separate agreements with the United States to share classified military information, but no such deal has so far been reached between Seoul and Tokyo.

"Both South Korea and Japan feel the need to sign the agreement," said the official quoted by Yonhap. If signed, it "will open a new horizon in the military relations between the two countries," he added.

Japan's Kitazawa will also visit the border truce village of Panmunjom and a naval base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometres (45 miles) south of Seoul, to see the wreck of a warship allegedly sunk in a North Korean torpedo attack in March.

Seoul, citing the results of a multinational investigation, blamed Pyongyang for the attack that killed 46 sailors -- a charge the North has angrily denied.

Japan's centre-left Prime Minister Naoto Kan and South Korea's conservative President Lee Myung-Bak may sign a joint statement centred on security cooperation as early as this spring, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported.

Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara is planning to visit South Korea for the first time next week, from Friday, January 14, to hold talks with his counterpart Kim Sung-Hwan, Kyodo News agency reported.

earlier related report
S.Korea to hold war games against N.Korea infiltration
Seoul (AFP) Jan 4, 2011 - South Korean marines and naval forces will hold joint war games this week to simulate an infiltration by North Korean troops across the tense Yellow Sea border, military officials said Tuesday.

Navy officials said the two-day manoeuvres on Friday and Saturday were designed to enhance the South's capability to repel a surprise landing on islands near the disputed sea border.

"This week's computer-simulated war games will be the first of their kind near the sea border," a navy spokesman told AFP.

Cross-border tensions have been high since the North shelled a South Korean island on November 23, killing four people including two civilians.

The South has since staged a series of military exercises, including a live-fire drill on December 20 on the island, but the North did not follow through with threats of a new and deadlier attack.

Rodong Sinmun, the North's communist party daily said Tuesday that such exercises demonstrated Seoul's "persistent design for invasion".

"They are advised to behave themselves, mindful that confrontation and war will bring earlier their own doom," it said.

The North's artillery attack in November prompted South Korea to strengthen defences along the sea border.

Last week South Korea reportedly deployed extra anti-submarine patrol aircraft to guard against a potential attack by North Korea.

Five P-3CK surveillance planes were deployed on Saturday in addition to 11 anti-submarine planes already in operation to patrol the sea off the west and east coasts, JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported Tuesday.

The move is "aimed to improve the ability to detect submarines following a North Korean submarine's attack on the Cheonan warship", the paper quoted a military official as saying.

Seoul, citing a multinational investigation, blamed Pyongyang for torpedoing one of its warships, the Cheonan, in March 2010, killing 46 sailors, a charge the North has vehemently denied.

"With the additional deployment of maritime surveillance aircraft, we are able to intensively monitor movements of the North's submarines in the East Sea and Yellow Sea," the official was quoted as saying.

The aircraft, nicknamed "submarine killers", have taken part in major drills including a joint naval exercise with the United States last July, the paper said.

Despite the tensions, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak Monday reached out to North Korea, saying Seoul was open to talks and offering closer economic ties.

In his New Year policy address, just days after Pyongyang called for improved relations in 2011, Lee also urged the North to abandon its "military adventurism".

The North, in a joint New Year editorial by state media on Saturday, said tensions "should be defused as early as possible", stressing dialogue and cooperation "should be promoted proactively".