South Korea's top diplomat will meet with ambassadors of the United States and Japan on Tuesday to discuss cooperation in dealing with North Korea and its growing nuclear threat.
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will meet with Marc Knapper, acting US Ambassador to South Korea, and Japanese Ambassador Yasumasa Nagamine in his office in the afternoon, according to the ministry.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se (Yonhap)
The unusual three-way meeting, arranged at the request of the ministry, followed Yun's talks with his US and Japanese counterparts -- Rex Tillerson and Fumio Kishida -- in New York last week.
"It is aimed at sharing what was discussed during the New York meeting and exchanging views on diverse possibilities in the future (with regard to the North)," Cho June-hyuck, foreign ministry's spokesman, told a regular press briefing.
This will mark Yun's first meeting with Nagamine after the ambassador returned in early April from a nearly three-month stay in Japan amid friction between the neighbors over a controversial girl statue symbolizing Japan's sexual slavery of Korean women during World War II.
Nagamine has sought to meet with high-ranking government officials, including Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, upon his return to Seoul to apparently deliver Tokyo's request that the statue installed in front of its consulate in the southeastern port city of Busan be removed.
Asked whether the statue issue will be discussed during the meeting, the spokesman only replied that it will be focused mostly on coordinating their joint approach toward the North's nuclear and missile threats. (Yonhap)