The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States met in the Philippines on Wednesday for talks likely centered on narrowing differences over the timing of the wartime operational control (OPCON) transition from Washington to Seoul, among other alliance issues. The talks between Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took place in Cebu, the venue for the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) Plus, led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to Seoul's defense ministry. It marked their first one-on-one meeting since Kang took office in September. Further details of their meeting were expected to be released later in the day. Wednesday's talks have drawn attention as Seoul seeks to regain wartime OPCON before the Lee Jae Myung administration's five-year term ends in 2030. It is pushing to announce a target year for the OPCON transfer at the upcoming high-level defense dialogue, the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM). Washington, however, has expressed reservations about rushing the process for political reasons, emphasizing