South Korea and France agreed Wednesday to jointly consider additional sanctions on North Korea while increasing military exchanges and defense technology cooperation between the two countries, officials said.

South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo and his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, reached the agreement during talks in Paris, sharing a view that nuclear and missile threats from the communist nation are serious, officials said.

The two sides will use their regular defense information exchange meeting to assess implementation of U.N. Security Council sanctions on the North and discuss additional sanctions separately from U.N. measures, officials said.

The information exchange dialogue was launched in 1987 and has since been held 24 times until last year.

Le Drian said during the talks with Han that France will encourage African and Middle Eastern nations to actively carry out sanctions on the North, according to a senior South Korean defense official. The minister was also quoted as saying that France's position on the North is strong, simple and clear.

The two ministers also agreed to expand France's participation in military exercises conducted in the South, including exercises involving U.S. troops. Currently, France sends two officials to the Key Resolve exercise and three officials to the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise as observers.

Under Wednesday's agreement, France is expected to send observers to exercises involving only Korean forces, too.

The two sides also agreed to upgrade defense industry cooperation in a way that calls for joint research, development and marketing of defense technology. Officials said the sides will revise the memorandum of understanding on defense industry cooperation.

The key point of the revision would be to change who is responsible for carrying out the agreement from the vice defense minister to the head of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, officials said.

The revision is expected to expand the scope of defense industry cooperation and speed it up. The two sides could talk about cooperation on key technologies, such as the active electronically scanned array radar to be equipped on Korea's indigenous KF-X fighter jet under development.

The two ministers agreed to strengthen cooperation and information exchange between French and South Korean peace-keeping operations units. The sides also agreed to sign a mutual logistics support agreement that allows the countries to lend and borrow defense goods and services while on a global PKO mission, officials said.

Other agreements include information exchange on cyber security and resuming the annual Korea-France Defense Strategic Dialogue this year, which has been suspended since 2009 after three meetings.

Le Drian said Wednesday's talks opened a new chapter in strategic defense cooperation between the two countries.

Separately, Han laid a wreath at a memorial of the 1950-53 Korean War in Paris as he expressed gratitude to French veterans who fought alongside South Korea during the conflict that ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

France is one of 16 nations that sent combat troops as part of U.N. forces to help defend South Korea from North Korea's invasion.

More than 3,400 French troops fought in the war, of whom 262 were killed and 1,008 were wounded. The bodies of 44 fallen French soldiers are now buried in a U.N. cemetery in the southern South Korean city of Busan. (Yonhap)