Kang to attend Vancouver meeting to discuss NK issues

South Korea's top diplomat is to join a gathering of ministers from 16 countries to be held in Canada this week to discuss issues related to security and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the foreign ministry said Sunday.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will leave for Vancouver to participate in the two-day meeting set to kick off on Monday (local time), according to the ministry.

The so-called Vancouver meeting brings together ministers of countries that fought alongside South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. Japan, India and Sweden will also take part in the event. It is hosted jointly by the US and Canada.

They are expected to discuss mostly security issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula, including North Korea's nuclear problem. 

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa (Yonhap)

On the sidelines, Kang could meet her counterparts from the US, Japan and other countries for bilateral or trilateral talks, according to ministry officials.

"We expect that the upcoming meeting will provide a platform to strengthen international coordination and spread consensus for peaceful and diplomatic resolutions of the North's nuclear problem," the ministry said.

This comes after South Korea and North Korea formally met for the first time in more than two years last week to discuss Pyongyang's participation in next month's Winter Olympics in the South.

The Seoul government has said that improving ties with the North should be pursued simultaneously with efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)