National security advisers of S. Korea, US, Japan to meet in Seoul next week

The national security advisers of South Korea, Japan and the United States will meet in Seoul next week, government sources said Friday, amid escalating threats from North Korea following its launch of a military satellite.

The three-way meeting is set to be held for two days starting next Friday, they added. It will be held between South Korea's Cho Tae-yong, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Japan's National Security Secretariat Secretary-General Takeo Akiba.

Cho and Sullivan had agreed to push for a trilateral meeting during their bilateral phone call on Nov. 9.

"I understand the three countries have agreed to hold a three-way national security advisers' meeting as agreed before," an official said, while speaking on condition of anonymity.

The meeting, if held, will be the first of its kind since June, when the top security advisers held three-way talks in Tokyo.

Next week's meeting is widely expected to discuss ways to jointly deal with North Korean provocations.

Pyongyang successfully launched its first military reconnaissance satellite last month following its two failed attempts in May and August.

The recalcitrant state has also scrapped a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement aimed at easing tension along the inter-Korean border after Seoul partially suspended the agreement in response to the North's space launch in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions that prohibit any ballistic missile launches by Pyongyang.

According to informed sources, the national security advisers will likely issue a joint statement at the end of their trilateral meeting here next week.

They are also expected to hold bilateral meetings, followed by a joint press conference, they noted. (Yonhap)