As South Korea and China agreed Tuesday to mend ties strained by their row over the THAAD missile defense system, the question of how soon they will restart their military consultation channels has arisen.

"Currently, there's no official dialogue channel with the Chinese defense authorities," a South Korean defense ministry official said. "(We) are considering various ways to establish it."

The neighboring countries had regular consultations on military issues before their ties soured amid disputes over Seoul's decision to deploy the advanced US missile defense system on its soil against North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile threats.

A bilateral working-level defense policy meeting was launched in 1995 and held almost every year. But it came to a halt in January last year.

The two sides produced a breakthrough in warming their relations last week, when South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo met with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan in Clark, the Philippines, on the sidelines of an ASEAN security forum.

It marked the first defense ministerial talks between the two countries in nearly two years.

The heads of their Joint Chiefs of Staff held their last one-on-one talks in June 2013.

The South Korean government announced earlier in the day that President Moon Jae-in plans to hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation session in Vietnam next month as part of efforts to "normalize" their relationship. (Yonhap)