South Korea is bracing for a series of key diplomatic talks with Japan and the United States next week, with trilateral security cooperation at a crucial juncture, officials and experts here said Wednesday.
The regional powers are seeking to arrange a vice ministerial meeting in Washington, a government source said.
"The three countries are in consultations to hold vice minister-level talks next week," the source said.
If held, South Korea will be represented by Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong. His American and Japanese counterpart will be Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki.
North Korea will be high on the agenda, and the diplomats are also expected to discuss the new defense cooperation guidelines between Washington and Tokyo.
Separately, the three nations plan to open the annual Defense Trilateral Talks of senior defense officials in the U.S. capital next week.
The U.S. has been bent on bolstering three-way security partnerships to counter the North's military threats and China's growing influence.
A stumbling block is the long-running territorial and history disputes between South Korea and Japan.
Japan's Shinzo Abe administration is intensifying Tokyo's claim to the sovereignty of Dokdo, a set of South Korea-controlled rocky islets in the East Sea.
Earlier this week, Japan approved new school textbooks and published an annual diplomatic white paper containing its Dokdo claim, drawing strong condemnation from South Korea.
South Koreans will also pay keen attention to Abe's speech at a joint meeting of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives slated for April 29.
Pundits say South Korea needs to deal with Japan's territorial and history claim in a calm manner for national interest.
"The history row between South Korea and Japan is becoming a multilateral issue involving the U.S. and China, not just a bilateral problem," said Cho Yang-hyun, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy.
An alternative strategy, if not the best one, is for South Korea to push for cooperation on security and other issues, while maintaining its current approach on the history issue, he added. (Yonhap)
