Top envoys of S. Korea, US, Japan hold virtual meeting ahead of summit
Foreign Minister Park Jin, right, meets with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Antony Blinken, left, and Yoshimasa Hayashi, respectively, in Munich, Germany, to discuss measures against North Korea's missile provocations in this Feb. 18 file photo. Yonhap
The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan on Tuesday held discussions virtually ahead of a trilateral summit among their leaders slated for later this week.
The virtual meeting among South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi took place to fine-tune details for the upcoming summit of their leaders, according to diplomatic sources.
U.S. President Joe Biden is set to host South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a trilateral summit at Camp David on Aug. 18 (local time).
The upcoming meeting will be the first stand-alone trilateral summit arranged solely for their shared agenda, not on the sidelines of a multilateral forum.
Strengthening the trilateral security cooperation is expected to top the agenda at the summit, as North Korea is ratcheting up military tensions with nuclear and missile programs.
During a Liberation Day speech earlier in the day, Yoon said the upcoming summit will set a new milestone in trilateral cooperation contributing to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific region.
The trilateral ministerial session came about a month after they met on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Jakarta. (Yonhap)