Korea attends senior officials meeting ahead of APEC summit

Kang Jae-kwon, center, deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, speaks at a meeting of senior officials ahead of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit gathering in San Francisco, in this photo provided by Seoul's foreign ministry, Nov. 13. Yonhap

Korea has attended a meeting of senior officials in San Francisco ahead of the summit gathering of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the foreign ministry said Monday.

The Korean delegation led by Kang Jae-kwon, deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, attended the Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting from Saturday to Sunday to review this year's activities and discuss ways for further cooperation, the ministry said.

Separately, Kang also met Rebecca Fatima, executive director of the APEC Secretariat, and discussed Korea's plan to host the APEC summit meeting in 2025.

This week's APEC summit, slated for Nov. 15-17, is set to bring together representatives from 21 APEC member economies, including Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Established in 1989, APEC is an inter-governmental framework designed to promote free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The United States last hosted the APEC summit in Hawaii in 2011. (Yonhap)