The United States can pursue opportunities for shipbuilding cooperation with South Korea and Japan to raise the production rates of American vessels, a top U.S. Navy official said Tuesday, praising the Asian allies' industrial advances. During a forum, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro made the remarks in response to a question over where the U.S. can consider co-production of ships with the two Asian allies as an option, as he noted the U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry has "atrophied" over recent decades. "I think it can in some ways and forms ... for example, their abilities for us to be able to build certain modules overseas," he said at the forum hosted by the Stimson Center. The secretary described an aircraft industry cooperation formula with India as an example. "In India, for example, we are building aircraft engines, and (we) are applying and re-instituting them here in the U.S.," he said. "So there are opportunities, I think, that we can pursue and we need to keep open-minded about th ose opportunities (with South Korea and Japan) so that we can actually increase the production rates of our ships and aircraft," he added. Toro touched on his trip to South Korea and Japan in February. "I was particularly impressed by the amazing amount of capital investment that they made in their own shipyards, not just in the shipyard but in the quality of life and quality of service of their shipyard workers outside the shipyards," he said. He underlined the existence of recreational facilities, housing and other facilities as well as the digitization of the shipyard operations that he said have enabled workers to "want to stay." "These are things that I think we could also import here to the U.S. to further strengthen our shipyards, both private and public shipyards," he said. The secretary pointed out the importance of cooperation with the Asian allies while noting that the U.S. has "conceded" its commercial shipbuilding capability to China although the U.S. has not conceded its naval supremacy. " Luckily, we have allies in Japan and Korea who also have invested heavily in the commercial shipbuilding side of the house," he said. Source: Yonhap News Agency