Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul departs for Laos to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum from Incheon International Airport, Thursday. Newsis

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul is set to attend the annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Vientiane, Laos, Thursday (local time), with a focus on strengthening partnerships with Southeast Asian countries in response to North Korea's increasing military threats.

Cho departed on Thursday morning for the region's largest security meeting, which will take place for a three-day run. The forum will gather top diplomats from ASEAN member nations as well as the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

Cho will participate in a series of multilateral events, such as the ASEAN Plus Three meetings which also involve China and Japan, along with the East Asia Summit ministerial gathering, according to his ministry. The ministerial conference involving all delegations will take place on the last day of the three-day event.

In between these sessions, Cho may hold meetings with key partners such as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, who are also set to attend the event.

A meeting between Cho and Kamikawa, if held, could draw significant attention, as the UNESCO World Heritage Committee is set to decide later this week whether to add Japan's Sado mines — a contentious wartime site linked to forced labor of Koreans — to its World Heritage list.

Tokyo's bid for the inscription has sparked criticism among Koreans as its submission letter excluded the 20th-century wartime atrocities linked to mine, while highlighting the mine's value from the 16th century to the mid-19th century.

Cho's attendance at the ARF comes at a time when North Korea is ramping up both its military activities and unconventional provocations against Seoul.

Since late May, Pyongyang has launched over 3,000 trash-carrying balloons to South Korea. The latest balloon provocation occurred on Wednesday, with the launch of 500 balloons, some of which landed on the presidential office compound.

Moreover, the burgeoning military ties between North Korea and Russia have raised concerns among Seoul officials, who speculate that Moscow may provide advanced military technologies to Pyongyang.

Cho is expected to focus his diplomatic efforts to include these issues in a joint statement following the ARF meeting.

"Regarding military cooperation — including arms transactions — between Russia and North Korea, Minister Cho plans to closely discuss our government's stance and garner international support on this issue during meetings with key officials at the upcoming ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting," foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said on Thursday.

Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov, left, shakes hands with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son-hui during a meeting in Pyongyang, Wednesday, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the next day. Yonhap

Meanwhile, much attention is being paid to whether North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui will attend the ARF, the only multilateral security dialogue in which the reclusive regime has participated since joining in 2000.

Since 2019, Pyongyang has been sending ambassador-level representatives instead of the foreign minister.

Speculation arose that this year's event might be attended by the top diplomat, given the friendly ties between Laos and North Korea.

According to diplomatic sources, however, Choe is likely to skip this year's event again. She is currently in Pyongyang hosting Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov, who arrived there on Tuesday.

The North's mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), reported Thursday that Choe held a bilateral meeting with Ryzhenkov the previous day, during which the two sides had "in-depth exchanges of views on regional and international affairs."

While the KCNA did not disclose specific details of the meeting, the talks likely focused on building cooperation among North Korea, Russia and Belarus against the U.S.-led Western bloc, given the strengthening Pyongyang-Moscow ties and Belarus' strong alliance with Russia.

Although North Korea and Belarus have maintained diplomatic relations since the early 1990s, Ryzhenkov's visit is noteworthy as it marks the first known visit by the European nation's top diplomat to Pyongyang, according to South Korea's Ministry of Unification.