South Korea and Japan will hold their first high-level security talks in more than five years next week, the foreign ministry here said Friday, amid renewed tension over historical and territorial issues.
The so-called 2+2 talks, involving two senior foreign affairs and defense officials from each side, will be held in Seoul on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement. They will be led by Lee Sang-deok, director of Northeast Asian affairs at the foreign ministry, and his Japanese counterpart, Junichi Ihara.
The talks have been suspended since the previous round in December 2009 amid frayed ties over history and territorial issues stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Earlier this week, Tokyo angered Seoul by renewing its claim to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo in an annual diplomatic report.
A senior foreign ministry official, speaking to Yonhap News Agency on customary condition of anonymity, said bilateral talks must continue in spite of the dispute.
The absence of talks over the past five years was due largely to issues such as North Korea's deadly attacks on a South Korean warship and border island in 2010, and then South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's visit to Dokdo in 2012, he said.
Next week, the two sides are expected to discuss the Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation, which are expected to be revised later this month around Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the U.S.
South Korea has expressed particular concern over the possible inclusion of Japan's decision to exercise its collective self-defense right, which empowers Japan to fight alongside its allies even if it is not attacked.
Such a revision would allow Japan to send forces to the Korean Peninsula to help its U.S. ally in the event of contingencies, such as conflict with North Korea.
South Korea and the U.S. are also allies, with more than 28,000 American troops stationed in the country to deter North Korean provocations.
Also next week, the vice foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and the U.S. will meet in Washington to discuss trilateral cooperation, the ministry said.
On Thursday, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong will meet with his American and Japanese counterparts -- Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki.
The planned meeting comes as Washington has pushed for stronger trilateral cooperation in the face of China's growing political and economic clout in the region.
Senior U.S. officials, including U.S. Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, have recently urged South Korea, Japan and China to overcome their differences in historical perception and cooperate for the future, drawing condemnation from South Koreans. (Yonhap)
