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| U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks with reporters aboard his plane en route to Thailand, before taking off from Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, July 30. AP-Yonhap |
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday he plans to meet with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Bangkok this week amid a simmering trade row between the two Asian nations.
Pompeo told reporters flying with him to Thailand for a regional forum that he will meet separately and then trilaterally with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.
"We will encourage them to find a path forward," Pompeo said, according to a transcript released by the State Department.
"We think it's important. They're both great partners of ours; they're both working closely with us on our efforts to denuclearize North Korea. So if we can help them find a good place for each of their two countries, we certainly find that important to the United States, indeed, as well as to each of those two countries," he said.
The three-way talks will come as tensions have increased over Tokyo's adoption of stricter export controls against Seoul in response to South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation for victims of wartime forced labor.
Seoul has sought Washington's support in resolving the row with Tokyo.
"I hope we'll have a good conversation and we can help get to a good place," Pompeo said.
Earlier, Reuters quoted a senior U.S. official as saying that Washington has urged its two Asian allies to consider signing a "standstill agreement" to allow time for negotiations. The accord would commit the two sides to refraining from further actions for a set period of time.
Pompeo's planned meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts as well as the reported proposal of a standstill agreement mark some of the biggest steps Washington has taken to ease the tensions since Tokyo's measure was announced in early July.
The U.S. had been reluctant to play an active intermediary role out of apparent concern it would be viewed as taking either side.
The trilateral meeting could take place before Friday, when Japan is expected to remove South Korea from its "white list" of countries given preferential treatment in export procedures.
The annual forum that all three will be attending is led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and provides a rare opportunity to meet with North Korean officials. The ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, brings together top diplomats from the 10 ASEAN states and their regional partners.
There had been speculation that Pompeo could meet with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho to discuss restarting working-level talks on denuclearizing the regime. Ri is reportedly skipping the event.
"We don't anticipate that the North Koreans will be at the event in Bangkok, but if they are, I'd look forward to the chance to meet with Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, would be great," Pompeo said. "We'll see if they are there, and if they are there, I am confident we'll meet."
Asked for any details on when the working-level talks will start, he said he didn't have any.
"We think they'll be started before too long," Pompeo said. "I'm very hopeful ... There's been a little bit of preliminary work to be done. But I hope ― I never want to set a date. I hope before too long we will have Special Representative Biegun sitting with his ― what I think will be a new counterpart from North Korea."
U.S. Special Representative Stephen Biegun is in charge of day-to-day negotiations with North Korea. His counterpart for the second U.S.-North Korea summit in February, Kim Hyok-chol, was reportedly removed from the post after the summit ended without a deal.
At the meeting in Vietnam, Trump and Kim failed to agree on the scope of North Korea's denuclearization and sanctions relief from the U.S. (Yonhap)
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