In this file photo, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul (R) and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stand side by side while speaking with other participants during the East Asia Summit in Vientiane, Laos, on July 27, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Korea Bizwire) – Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks on the margins of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Peru later this week, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Thursday.
The talks will take place early Friday (Seoul time) in Lima, where the two top diplomats will gather to attend a ministerial meeting while accompanying the presidents at the APEC summit.
Cho and Blinken are expected to discuss coordination regarding North Korea’s troops deployed to Russia in support of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, South Korea’s spy agency confirmed North Korean soldiers have engaged in combat operations against the Ukrainian forces in Russia’s western Kursk border region.
The confirmation echoes an earlier announcement by the U.S. State Department that most of the 10,000 North Korean soldiers deployed to the Kursk area have begun engaging in combat.
After meeting North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels on Wednesday, Blinken said the North’s troop deployment to Russia in the war against Kyiv “demands and will get a firm response,” according to news reports.
Blinken said the expanding military ties between North Korea and Russia are a “two-way street,” expressing concern over what Moscow may be giving Pyongyang in return for the troop deployment, possibly to boost the North’s nuclear and other military capacity.
Their talks are also likely to include discussions on efforts to strengthen the bilateral alliance during the transition to the incoming Donald Trump administration.
Cho and Blinken last met in Washington, D.C., late last month for the “two plus two” meeting that was joined by the defense chiefs of the two countries.
(Yonhap)
