By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The South Korea-U.S. relations will be further developed to strategic and cooperative ones following the inauguration of the new U.S. administration, Seoul's top diplomat said Monday.
``South Korea and the United States will be able to more closely cooperate and coordinate issues of mutual concern,'' Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a press briefing at the ministry in Seoul.
Yu referred to President-elect Barack Obama's recent appointments for his administration's top posts on foreign and defense affairs. Obama is to be sworn in as the U.S. President Jan. 20.
``Progress has been seen in the Obama administration's minister-level lineups for foreign and defense affairs, and we expect there will be many personnel who have extensive knowledge of issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula,'' said Yu. ``Under the new leaderships of the two governments, both sides will push for mapping out measures to strengthen a strategic alliance.''
Reports said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific, will replace Christopher Hill as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.
Wendy Sherman, a former North Korea policy coordinator of the State Department, is favored to become a chief advisor to Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, they said.
As for the North Korean nuclear issue, the minister said his government would soon begin consultations with the Obama administration to discuss ways of finalizing a stalled verification issue and start talks over the North's nuclear dismantlement.
Yu also painted a bright picture of the future Seoul-Tokyo relations.
``President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso have met five times since Aso's inauguration in September last year,'' he said. ``I expect such frequent meetings between the leaders of the two nations will lead to expanding mutual understanding and exchanges of the two peoples and help build mature partnership.''