US official hints at trilateral summit among leaders of S. Korea, US, Japan by end of this year

A White House official on Thursday suggested the possibility of holding a trilateral summit among the leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan by the end of this year, following the historic Camp David summit last year.

Mira Rapp-Hooper, the senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the National Security Council, made the remarks, emphasizing that the three countries will continue to build the partnership and put it on strategic footing for the long term, including by holding "another trilateral leaders summit before the end of the calendar year this year."

Rapp-Hooper spoke at the Hudson Institute think tank event, marking the first anniversary of the Camp David summit. The summit was the first-ever stand-alone trilateral meeting among South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, which resulted in a series of landmark agreements.

"Our task, of course, is to ensure that this partnership stands the test of time, and I'm confident that the work we've done to date, along with what we will undertake in the next six months, will continue to strengthen the US-Japan-ROK trilateral partnership for years to come," she said. ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.

The anticipated meeting, however, comes at a time of political change. Kishida has said he will step down next month, and Biden has also dropped out of the presidential race.

Rapp-Hooper acknowledged Kishida's announcement, noting that it "reminds us that political change in all of our systems is inevitable."

However, she emphasized that the three countries have spent the last year focusing on how to institutionalize various forms of trilateral cooperation, ensuring that these efforts will withstand political changes and endure in the long term.

Regarding North Korea, Rapp-Hooper expressed concern over the burgeoning ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, noting that this development has direct implications not only for the Korean Peninsula but also for the broader Indo-Pacific region and allies in Europe.

She hinted at further actions to pressure North Korea, stating, "We're working alongside these partners, as well as with European partners, to identify new sanctions targets for individuals and entities that are facilitating payments and weapons transfers, and are undermining UN Security Council resolutions."

She also noted that North Korea has shown no interest in dialogue, but the US, South Korea and Japan will continue to coordinate diplomatic strategies to engage with Pyongyang.

"Ultimately, we do hope that Pyongyang will see fit to engage with at least one of us at some point," she said. (Yonhap)