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| South Korea Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, second from right and former Defense Minister Song-Young-moo, far right, greet their Australian counterparts during the last bilateral ministerial talks at the Government Complex building in central Seoul, Oct. 13, 2017. / Yonhap |
By Jhoo Dong-chan
South Korea and Australia will hold foreign and defense ministerial talks in Sydney this week to discuss issues related to regional security and the countries' common interests, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
According to a ministry statement, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo will visit Australia to meet counterparts Marise Payne and Linda Reynolds on Tuesday.
"Both countries are major stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region and have closely cooperated to ensure regional security. They also discussed various global issues under the framework of the two-plus-two ministerial meeting," the ministry said.
"This year, both sides will discuss the countries' joint efforts in various security issues, including nonproliferation, cyber-security and terrorism and they will explore cooperation between Seoul's New Southern Policy and Australia's Indo-Pacific strategy."
The ministry added that Kang would have a separate meeting with Marise Payne to discuss further ways to bolster ties through strengthening their network and diplomatic infrastructure.
The two-plus-two ministerial meeting has been a biannual event since 2013. Seoul hosted the last meeting in October 2017. This year's meeting is the fourth of its kind.
During the last meeting, both sides released a joint statement announcing that they wouldn't recognize North Korea as a nuclear power and would "take necessary steps to force the North to comply with its duties to the international community."
Then-Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Payne also visited the truce village of Panmunjom before the 2017 meeting.
This year's meeting will take place amid mounting tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ahead of the "year-end deadline" proposed by Kim for a breakthrough in the countries' denuclearization talks.
Washington and Pyongyang have blamed each other for the stalled talks and urged each other to make concessions to resume the negotiations.
Despite often emphasizing his "great relations" with Kim, Trump mentioned the possible "use of force" if necessary during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit this week.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui immediately issued a warning via state media, saying Trump's approach was "prompting the waves of hatred of our people against the U.S."
