Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will hold their first bilateral talks in the Philippines this week ahead of a ministerial meeting led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a source familiar with the matter said Tuesday.
Kang's upcoming talks with Hegseth come as the allies face a host of pending defense and alliance issues to work out, particularly Seoul's efforts to retake wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington.
Seoul wants to finalize the FOC verification, the second stage of a three-phase, "conditions-based" OPCON transition plan agreed upon with Washington and announce a target year for the handover at this year's SCM.
South Korea has blamed the North for the incident after determining that a North Korean antipersonnel mine was the cause of the explosion.
It is part of a series of annual high-level ASEAN security forums, hosted this year by the Philippines as the rotating chair.