South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold a trilateral meeting of their top diplomats, with the talks anticipated to serve as an opportunity to discuss key regional issues including North Korea’s nuclear program, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Friday.
Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul will meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, according to the ministry.
The scheduled meeting would mark the first trilateral talks among the three top diplomats since Donald Trump began his second term in January. It would also be Cho’s first overseas trip since suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration on Dec. 3, 2024.
"We expect this meeting to serve as an opportunity to discuss ways to advance trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the US and Japan, as well as to address the North Korean nuclear issue and regional affairs, and enhance cooperation in economic security," the ministry said.
Though not directly mentioned by Seoul’s foreign ministry, observers say Trump’s recent announcement to slap a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports to the US, starting March 12, is likely to be a key agenda item at the trilateral talks.
The announcement rattled South Korea’s steel and aluminum manufacturers, as they are among the top steel exporters to the US. Last year, South Korea exported 28.35 metric tons of steel products, with 2.77 million tons of the total outbound shipments sent to the US, data from the Korea Iron & Steel Association lobby group showed.
Regarding South Korea’s aluminum exports to the US, the value of outbound shipments to the US came to 1.5 trillion won ($1.03 billion) last year, accounting for 20 percent of the total exports valued at 7.3 trillion won, according to the Korea Nonferrous Metal Association.
During his first four-year term that ended in 2021, Trump imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum imports into the US. However, some US trading partners including South Korea were soon granted duty-free exemptions.
The Saturday meeting also comes amid growing domestic concerns about Korean Peninsula security, in line with the continuing advance of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. The lack of talks between the decades-old allies, with Yoon suspended and detained amid an impeachment trail, has fed further concerns that the leadership vacuum poses a major risk to domestic security.
“To reaffirm that the complete denuclearization of the peninsula remains a shared goal between Seoul and Washington as well as enhancing the credibility of the US’ extended deterrence commitment to use the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend its ally would be a key task for Cho,” said Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
