U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman arrived in South Korea for a two-day visit on Wednesday to discuss mutual security concerns including North Korea, officials in Seoul said.
Her trip to Seoul is part of her three-nation tour. Before Seoul, Sherman visited Beijing for two days and plans to fly to Tokyo on Thursday afternoon.
In Seoul, Sherman was expected to meet Seoul’s First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong on Thursday to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation on regional and global security, as well as to reaffirm the Korea-U.S. alliance on North Korea.
She also plans to meet Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and visit the presidential office on the same day. She is expected to meet a senior presidential official, but not President Park Geun-hye, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Wednesday.
Sherman, on her second visit to Seoul as undersecretary of state, is the first high-ranking U.S. official to visit South Korea this year.
“Through Undersecretary Sherman’s visit to South Korea, which marks the first high-level meeting between the two countries, we expect to expand bilateral cooperation on (Korean peninsular) policies,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il.
Sherman’s trip came as Seoul and Washington have been taking a somewhat different path toward Pyongyang. The Park government has urged Pyongyang to agree to hold an inter-Korean dialogue while the Obama administration has imposed a sanction against the communist regime over its alleged cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, apparently over the release of its film “The Interview,” a comedy centering on a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
In line with Sherman’s trip, another high-ranking U.S. official, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Frank Rose, was expected to visit Seoul on Thursday, raising hopes that South Korea and the U.S. were aiming to harmonize their North Korea policies.
Some observers say that officials could also discuss how to cope with Kim Jong-un’s planned visit to Moscow in May and also other regional issues including Japan’s historic revisionism.
Russia’s presidential office confirmed Wednesday that Kim will attend an international event to be held to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II.
By Cho Chung-un (
christory@heraldcorp.com)
