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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in South Korea Wednesday for security talks and other diplomatic events to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to the South Korea-U.S. alliance as a warning to North Korea against future provocations.

Clinton flew in from Afghanistan, where she attended an international conference on the country, and is scheduled to participate in the “2 plus 2” talks later. The talks will involve the foreign and defense ministers of the the United States and South Korea. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been in Seoul since Monday for talks in advance with Seoul officials.

The main topics for Wednesday’s talks include how to reinforce the status of their alliance, joint strategies to deal with North Korea and boosting cooperation on regional and global issues such as Afghanistan and nonproliferation, foreign ministry officials said.

Both countries will issue a joint statement after the talks, they said.

Meanwhile, South Korea and the United States announced their plan on Tuesday to hold a series of maritime and air drills around the Korean Peninsula, which China has publicly opposed.

They said these exercises will begin next week to demonstrate their joint defense capabilities against North Korea’s provocations.

The first of the joint exercises, dubbed “Invincible Spirit,” will involve the U.S. aircraft carrier USS George Washington, some 20 warships and about 200 aircraft in the East Sea from Sunday through Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. forces here said in a statement.

South Korea’s naval ship Dokdo, the largest transportation vessel in Asia, and 18 other surface ships, fighters including F-15K and KF-16 and submarines will participate.

The two countries will follow with more drills in both the Yellow Sea and the East Sea.

Defense Minister Kim Tae-young and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates met on Tuesday in Seoul and concluded the details of the drills.

South Korea and the United States have been preparing for the drills since an investigation by South Korea concluded in May that North Korea was responsible for the March 26 sinking of patrol combat corvette Cheonan. Forty-six sailors were killed in the incident.

Source: The Hankyoreh and Yonhap News Agency