SEOUL (Reuters) -South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;and&nbsp;Australia's&nbsp;defence&nbsp;chiefs&nbsp;agreed on Tuesday to&nbsp;step&nbsp;up&nbsp;defence&nbsp;cooperation,&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;defence&nbsp;ministry said.
Korean&nbsp;Defence&nbsp;Minister Lee Jong-sup&nbsp;met his&nbsp;Australian counterpart Richard Marles on the sidelines of the inaugural S.&nbsp;Korea-Pacific Islands Summit in Seoul.
Lee expressed the&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean military's willingness to join the Indo-Pacific Endeavour, an&nbsp;Australian-led multinational military drill, as well as Operation Render Safe, activities by the&nbsp;Australian Defense Force to remove underwater mines in the Pacific.
The two countries&nbsp;agreed to hold working-level meetings as part of&nbsp;steps to revise a memorandum of understanding signed in 2011 aimed at enhancing defense industry&nbsp;cooperation.
Marles also met with&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol and discussed joint efforts to expand&nbsp;cooperation&nbsp;with the Pacific Islands countries, a presidential spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Bernadette Baum)

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South Korea, Australia agree to step up defence cooperation