WASHINGTON, South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold a trilateral vice foreign ministerial meeting in Virginia this week to discuss North Korean threats, cooperation on economic security and critical technologies and other issues, the State Department said Monday.
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano are set to attend the trilateral dialogue in historic Little Washington, Virginia, on Friday, according to it.
The meeting comes as Seoul, Washington and Tokyo share concerns over Pyongyang’s plan to launch another satellite-carrying rocket before June 4. They see the planned launch as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
“This dialogue … will reaffirm the importance of trilateral cooperation in advancing a free and open, connected, prosperous, secure, and resilient Indo-Pacific region,” the department said in a media note.
“This dialogue will focus on utilizing our collective capac
ity to strengthen cooperation on economic security, critical and emerging technologies, and maritime security, as well as a range of regional and global challenges, including the threats posed by the DPRK to regional and global peace and security,” it added.
DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The three sides are also set to discuss Russia’s prolonged war against Ukraine, the “importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” and humanitarian support for the people of Gaza, according to the department.
The department called the upcoming meeting a “key deliverable” from the landmark trilateral summit that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held at Camp David in Maryland in August.
On Friday morning, Campbell plans to meet bilaterally with Kim to discuss the role of the South Korea-U.S. alliance in promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and
beyond.
On the eve of the trilateral meeting, he and Okano are set to attend the inaugural meeting of the vice-ministerial U.S.-Japan Strategic Diplomacy and Development Dialogue, the department said.
The upcoming meetings follow the trilateral summit that Yoon, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Kishida held in Seoul on Monday.
Source: Yonhap News Agency