South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, U.S. President Joe Biden, center, and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba pose for a photo ahead of their trilateral talks that took place on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru, on Nov. 16, 2024. Yonhap

South Korea, the United States and Japan officially launched a secretariat for trilateral cooperation Wednesday, following the announcement on its establishment at their leaders' summit last week, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

The launch of the Trilateral Secretariat came days after the leaders of the three countries announced the plan during the summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru on Friday (local time).

Establishing the secretariat was part of an agreement reached between President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and then Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Camp David summit in August last year.

The envisioned launch of the secretariat has been seen as a concrete step toward implementing the commitments shared among the three nations, including enhancing three-way coordination and cooperation against common challenges, including North Korea's military threats.

The inaugural meeting for the secretariat's launch took place in Seoul, led by Lee Won-woo, deputy director general for North American affairs at the South Korean foreign ministry; Robert Koepcke, U.S. deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs; and Akihiro Okochi, deputy director general for Asian and Oceanian affairs of Japan's foreign ministry.

Each country will rotate the role of secretary general and the operation of the secretariat every two years, starting with South Korea, followed by the U.S. and Japan, the foreign ministry said.

At Wednesday's meeting, the three countries "assessed the progress in the trilateral cooperation since the Camp David summit and discussed the structure and operational plans for the secretariat," the ministry said.

South Korea will work with the U.S. and Japan to coordinate various ongoing projects in areas such as security, the economy, advanced technology and people-to-people exchanges, with the aim of institutionalizing and fostering the continuous development of trilateral cooperation, the ministry added. (Yonhap)