South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold foreign ministers’ talks in Manila this week to coordinate policy on North Korea and strengthen trilateral security and economic cooperation.
Attention is also focused on whether Seoul and Washington’s top diplomats will hold separate bilateral talks amid a growing list of pending issues.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is scheduled to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Wednesday on the sidelines of a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related ministerial meetings in Manila, the Philippines, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry.
The meeting will come about two weeks after the three met on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Ankara on July 7.
Seoul is also coordinating separate bilateral meetings with the US, Japan and China, with particular attention focused on whether Cho and Rubio will hold formal one-on-one talks.
Several sensitive issues remain unresolved between Seoul and Washington, including the controversy surrounding Coupang and follow-up measures related to South Korea’s $350 billion investment commitment in the US.
