If held, it will be the first US-Japan-ROK meeting since the New York meeting a month ago...

(Gyeongju = Yonhap News) Special Reporting Team = A plan is being promoted for the foreign ministers of Korea, the United States, and Japan to meet on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in Gyeongju and reaffirm the will of the three countries to cooperate.

According to multiple diplomatic sources on the 28th, the three countries of South Korea, the US, and Japan are coordinating a plan to hold a foreign ministers' meeting on the 29th, when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi visit South Korea to attend the summit.

In a situation where it is difficult to achieve a summit between South Korea, the US, and Japan, if a trilateral foreign ministers' meeting is held, it is expected to help maintain the momentum of cooperation.

In particular, it appears that this will be an opportunity to naturally send a message that the US-Japan-ROK cooperation will continue even in the face of the recent change in Japanese government.

In addition to the trilateral common policy toward North Korea, there is also interest in whether there will be an exchange of opinions on public policy ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to South Korea on the 30th.

If the trilateral foreign ministers' meeting is held, it will be approximately a month after the one held on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly high-level session in New York late last month. This will be the first such meeting since Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi took office.

The South Korea-US-Japan summit, which has not yet been held since the inauguration of the second Trump administration, is expected to be difficult this time as well due to tight schedules.

Oh Hyun-joo, 3rd Deputy Director of the National Security Office, said at a press conference the previous day regarding the possibility of a trilateral summit between South Korea, the U.S., and Japan,"Considering President Trump's short visit to South Korea and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's own schedule, I don't think it will be easy to come up with such a schedule."

(Kim Ji-yeon)