Lee Hyo-jin covers the Bank of Korea, the banking industry and broader financial news. Her previous beats include foreign affairs, North Korea and general reporting on Korean society.
Trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Washington, Tokyo in full swing
This compilation image shows President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Yonhap
By Lee Hyo-jin
Kishida to arrive in Seoul on Sunday for summit with Yoon
By Lee Hyo-jin
Trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan in the security realm is picking up momentum as the three nations team up against shared threats from North Korea's evolving nuclear programs and, furthermore, China.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is scheduled to visit Seoul for a summit with President Yoon Suk Yeol, Sunday, according to Yoon's office, Tuesday, and the two leaders are supposed to meet again in a three-way summit with U.S. President Joe Biden later this month in Hiroshima, Japan, on the sidelines of a G7 Summit there.
According to foreign media reports, Monday, a senior U.S. official confirmed that Biden will hold a trilateral summit with Yoon and Kishida during his visit to Hiroshima for the G7 Summit slated for May 19 to 21. The Korean president has been invited to the G7 gathering by the Japanese prime minister.
It will be the first three-way talks between Yoon, Biden and Kishida since the last one held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last November on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit meeting.
The three leaders are expected to discuss ways to strengthen security ties to better deal with the shared challenges posed by North Korea's intensifying nuclear threats. During their last meeting in Cambodia, they agreed to forge closer trilateral security links through regular joint exercises and sharing of North Korea missile warning data in real time.
Much attention is paid to whether the three leaders will come up with detailed measures on bolstering the trilateral military alliance.
According to South Korea's presidential office, Kishida and his wife Yuko Kishida will visit Seoul from Sunday and Monday. The envisioned visit signals a full-fledged resumption of the so-called shuttle diplomacy between the two neighboring countries in which the leaders regularly visit each other's countries, the presidential office added.
Kishida will become the first Japanese leader to visit Seoul in five years and three months after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit on the occasion of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shake hands at the Japanese prime minister's office in Tokyo, March 16. Korea Times file
In terms of bilateral meetings, it will be the first visit by the Japanese leader since October 2011, when former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda visited Seoul for a summit with then-South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
Yoon's office also said National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong will meet his Japanese counterpart Takeo Akiba, who will make a two-day visit to Seoul from Wednesday to prepare for the summit. The top security officials will discuss bilateral relations and regional and global security affairs.
According to Japanese media reports, Kishida said he wants to “exchange frank opinions” with Yoon about bilateral relations as well as the rapidly changing global security environment.
Bilateral relations between South Korea and Japan have been thawing rapidly since March after the two countries agreed to move past the historical feud stemming back to Tokyo's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
High on the top agenda for the upcoming summit is expected to be bolstering military cooperation against Pyongyang's continuing missile provocations. Some local media reported that Japan may be invited to join the soon-to-be launched Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) between Seoul and Washington.
Under the Washington Declaration announced by Yoon and Biden during the former's state visit to the U.S last week, the two nations will establish the unprecedented consultative body to strengthen extended deterrence and discuss nuclear and strategic planning.
However, the South Korean government viewed that Japan's joining of the NCG is not a feasible scenario at this point.
“That is a highly far-fetched, inaccurate report,” Cho told reporters, Monday. “The first thing we should do is stabilize the bilateral system on the operation of nuclear weapons through the NCG. Then, we may open doors for another country to join, but still, that is the next step.”