Senior diplomats of S. Korea, US, Japan to hold talks in Seoul this week: foreign ministry

Senior diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan will gather in Seoul this week for trilateral talks on ways to further boost their partnership, Seoul's foreign ministry said Sunday.

First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun will host US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano for the dialogue scheduled for Wednesday, the ministry said in a release.

Kim will also hold separate bilateral talks with Campbell on the same day and with Okano on Thursday.

The upcoming talks come about five months after the three sides held their last meeting in Virginia in May.

"The three vice ministers will have in-depth discussions on the trilateral coordination for regional and global issues, including the Korean Peninsula issue, and discuss ways for the future development of the South Korea-US-Japan cooperation," the ministry said.

The tripartite meeting comes as Seoul and Washington are seeking to further cement the three-way partnership with Tokyo, especially with the recent leadership change in Japan with new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and with the US presidential election less than a month away.

The leaders of the three countries declared a new chapter in their partnership at the trilateral Camp David summit in August last year. The summit produced a series of agreements, including the "Commitment to Consult" each other in the event of a shared threat.

In the May meeting among the vice ministers, the three countries agreed to establish a "coordinating body" to "institutionalize" the trilateral cooperation. (Yonhap)