South Korea, the United States and Japan are considering holding a trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers in Vancouver, Canada, next week on the sidelines of an international gathering aimed at discussing more effective sanctions on North Korea, a diplomatic source here said Friday.

“There is a possibility of a trilateral foreign ministerial meeting during the meeting of the Vancouver Group, as all foreign ministers from South Korea, the US and Japan are scheduled to attend it,” the source said. “Further discussion is needed to fix details regarding schedule.”

The meeting in Vancouver, slated for Monday and Tuesday in the Canadian city, will bring together the top ministers of countries that sent their troops to fight alongside the South during the Korean War. The meeting will discuss how to boost the effectiveness of sanctions on the North. 

If held, the ministers meeting would be the second gathering of Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Foreign Minister Taro Kono, following their meeting in August last year in Manila on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

The likely meeting is sure to center on discussion of the outcome of the recent high-level inter-Korean talks and ways to bridge that with efforts to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea is also discussing Kang’s bilateral meetings with Tillerson and Kono, according to officials in Vancouver. (Yonhap)