South Korea's Defense Minister Han Min-koo departed for France for a three-day visit to the European country where he plans to hold talks on North Korea and ways to expand bilateral defense cooperation measures, the ministry said Tuesday.

During the visit, Han will meet with France's Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Wednesday.

Han's visit to France, that runs through Thursday, comes at the invitation of Paris which expressed a wish to discuss "practical" measures to further strengthen bilateral ties in the defense sector, which was agreed during the South Korea-France summit meeting last November, the ministry also said.

High on the ministers' agenda are joint actions against North Korea's nuclear and missile ambitions and nuclear non-proliferation efforts, according to the ministry.

Both countries have been at the forefront of the United Nations Security Council's adoption of a punitive resolution against North Korea in March following the communist country's nuclear detonation test in January and a long-range rocket launch the next month.

The ministers' meeting comes less than two weeks after the two ministers held talks on the sidelines of the regional Shangri-La Dialogue held in early June in Singapore. (Yonhap)