SEOUL, Oct. 13-- South Korea will host the third round of high-level multilateral security forum in Seoul later this month to discuss ways of building military trust in the Asia- Pacific region, Seoul's Defense Ministry said Monday.

The Seoul Defense Dialogue (SDD), a vice ministerial-level regional security forum launched in 2012, will be held in the country's capital again for three days from Oct. 29.

It is scheduled to bring together vice or director general- level defense officials from 24 Asia-Pacific countries and three international organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Among the participants would be vice defense ministers from 17 countries, including the United States and Japan, as well as seven director general-level officials from seven nations, including China and Russia that will send their delegations to the forum for the first time this year. "The number of participants is rising every year. The SDD is anticipated to establish itself as a vice ministerial-level security forum in the region,"Army Brig. Gen. Moon Sang-gyun, director-general of arms control at the Defense Ministry, told foreign correspondents in Seoul at a pre-briefing.

The number of participating countries increased from 23 in 2013 to 27 in 2014. The number of vice ministers to join the dialogue will rise from 12 to 17 in the same period.

Vice defense ministers from South Korea and Japan will have bilateral talks on the sidelines of the security forum after holding it last year. Other bilateral meetings have yet to be fixed.

The participants will discuss how to build military trust in the region under the main theme of"From Conflict to Cooperation: Measures for Trust-building among Asia-Pacific Countries."

This year's forum will consist of two plenary sessions and four other sessions: military trust-building and conflict prevention; humanitarian aid, disaster relief and defense cooperation; maritime security and defense cooperation; cyber- security cooperation and international norm.