Japanese Media: "South Korea, US, Japan Foreign Ministers Meeting Planned in Early Next Month in UK"

▲Motegi Toshimitsu, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] It was reported on the 29th by Yomiuri Shimbun that South Korea, the United States, and Japan are planning to hold a foreign ministers' meeting next month in the United Kingdom.

Yomiuri Shimbun, citing multiple Japanese government officials, reported that South Korea, the U.S., and Japan are discussing holding a trilateral foreign ministers' meeting attended by Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu, timed to coincide with the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers' meeting to be held in the UK from the 3rd to the 5th of next month.

If the South Korea-U.S.-Japan foreign ministers' meeting is held in the UK this time, it will be the first in about one year and two months since the meeting between former Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Foreign Minister Motegi at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on February 15 last year (local time).

At that time, a South Korea-Japan foreign ministers' meeting was also held.

South Korea is not a G7 member country but was invited by the UK, the chair country of this meeting.

The trilateral foreign ministers' meeting is known to be led in coordination by the U.S. side.

Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Foreign Minister Motegi is also scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Secretary Blinken, but it is uncertain whether a South Korea-Japan foreign ministers' meeting will take place.

Earlier, it was reported that the first South Korea-U.S.-Japan foreign ministers' meeting since the inauguration of the Joe Biden administration would be held in the U.S. this month, but it did not materialize.

Foreign Minister Motegi has refused a phone call with Minister Chung, who took office in February this year, demanding that the South Korean government present a concrete solution regarding South Korean court rulings on compensation for comfort women and forced labor victims.

Minister Chung urged dialogue at a press conference on the 31st of last month, saying, "Personally, I hope that a South Korea-Japan foreign ministers' meeting can be held early," and "I am willing to meet in any form."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.