The foreign and defense ministers of South Korea and the United States will gather in Washington at the end of the month to discuss North Korea sending troops to aid Russia

Yonhap News Agency, Seoul, October 28 (Xinhua) In the context of the deterioration of the situation on the Korean Peninsula caused by North Korea sending troops to assist Russia to attack Ukraine, the foreign and defense ministers of South Korea and the United States will gather in Washington to discuss countermeasures.

According to the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 28th, the sixth “2+2” meeting of South Korea and the United States foreign ministers and defense ministers will be held in Washington, the United States, on the 31st local time. This will be the first meeting between the two foreign ministers and defense ministers in three years. The last meeting was held in South Korea in 2021. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Dui-yeol and Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun will attend the meeting, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The foreign ministers and defense ministers of the two countries will have in-depth discussions on the situation on the Korean Peninsula and South Korea-US alliance cooperation, and issue a joint statement reflecting the content of the meeting. In particular, the foreign ministers and defense ministers of the two countries will jointly review the recent security situation on the Korean Peninsula, including the issue of North Korea sending troops to aid Russia, and discuss policy cooperation plans for North Korea. Cho Dui-yeol and Blinken will hold separate South Korea-US foreign ministers’ talks to discuss plans for cooperation between the two countries in the South Korea-US alliance, South Korea-US-Japan cooperation, and the North Korean issue.

After that, Cho Duiyeol and Kim Yonghyun will leave for Ottawa, Canada, to hold the first “2+2” meeting between the foreign ministers of South Korea and Canada with Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and Defense Minister Bill Blair on the 1st of next month. The foreign ministers and defense ministers of the two countries will discuss the Korean Peninsula issue, major regional and international focus issues, as well as cooperation plans for the two countries’ defense, security and military industry, and issue a joint statement covering the results of the meeting. (over)