Despite their frayed relations, South Korea and Japan are expected to hold a series of defense and foreign affairs officials' meetings bilaterally or trilaterally with the United States later this month, diplomatic sources said Sunday.
Deputy minister-level officials from the three countries are scheduled to hold the annual Defense Trilateral Talks in Washington where they are expected to discuss ways to increase cooperation on missile defense, information sharing and other matters.
The meeting will be followed by the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue set for April 14, an annual session where the two countries have discussed bolstering their combined defense posture against North Korea, the sources said.
In addition, the three countries are also considering holding a three-way meeting of vice foreign minister-level officials to talk about how to cope with the North Korean nuclear standoff and other ways to increase trilateral security cooperation in the region, the sources said.
Bilaterally, South Korea and Japan are expected to hold a two plus two meeting of senior defense and foreign affairs officials later this month, resuming a dialogue mechanism that has been suspended since the last meeting in late 2009 due to strained relations.
Seoul and Tokyo reportedly agreed to resume the two plus two security dialogue when their foreign ministers held talks last month.
Relations between South Korea and Japan have been badly strained for years due mainly to Tokyo's attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities and colonial occupation, especially the country's sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women for its troops.
The two countries have not held a formal bilateral summit of their leaders for more than two years as Tokyo has refused to accept Seoul's demand that it formally apologize to and compensate sexual slavery victims known as "comfort women."
Frayed relations between the two key Asian allies have been a key cause for concern for Washington as the country seeks to further bolster three-way security cooperation in an effort to keep a rising China in check. (Yonhap)
