South Korea First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun arrives at the Dulles International Airport on Tuesday, on a visit for talks with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. (Yonhap)
South Korea is open to a three-way dialogue with the United States and Japan, but no official meeting has been scheduled for their leaders taking part in the Group of Seven (G7) summit this week, a senior South Korean diplomat said Tuesday.
South Korea's vice foreign minister, Choi Jong-kun, also said his country will actively seek dialogue opportunities with the leaders of the United States and Japan at the upcoming G7 summit in Britain.
"We are open, and plan to actively push for a South Korea-US-Japan (summit), but there is nothing that says we should do something at the leader level officially," he told reporters after arriving in Washington.
The South Korean vice foreign minister is on a visit for talks with his US counterpart, Wendy Sherman.
His remarks come one day after US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said no trilateral meeting has been scheduled for President Joe Biden, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
Sullivan, however, noted a possibility "for virtually anything," citing what he called small spaces of the venue for the G7 summit in Britain's Cornwall.
"I understand we are not currently pushing for one (three-way summit)," Choi said when asked.
"However, I believe there can be many possibilities since the venue for the upcoming G7 summit is said to be not greater than previous G7 meetings or other multilateral forums in terms of space," he added.
South Korea is not a G7 member, but has been invited to this year's meeting as a guest, along with Australia, India and South Africa.
Choi's trip to Washington follows the Moon-Biden summit held in Washington on May 21.
"We will review various items of the joint statement from the South Korea-US summit," Choi said of his visit. "Some follow-up steps are well under way, so the Foreign Ministry and the State Department will look to find areas where we can get more speed." (Yonhap)