Mongolia, Japan and USA mull trilateral foreign minister talks

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Japan Times reported August 13 that Japan, the United States and Mongolia are considering holding their first trilateral foreign ministerial talks in a bid to tap into Mongolia’s close ties with North Korea to settle a host of issues involving Pyongyang, diplomatic sources said Thursday. By drawing Mongolia into a multilateral framework, Japan and the United States hope that Mongolia can play a role in helping resume the stalled six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program and making progress on the issue of North Korea’s abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, the sources said. The six-party dialogue, aimed at ending the reclusive country’s nuclear ambitions, has been deadlocked since late 2008. The talks involve the two Koreas, Japan, China, the United States and Russia. The three countries intend to hold a meeting of senior diplomats next month to discuss the timing of talks at the foreign ministerial level, the sources said. The step to hold a foreign ministerial meeting among Japan, the United States and Mongolia is in line with an agreement made by the leaders of Japan and Mongolia in 2013 to hold a regular trilateral dialogue with the United States, the sources said. They will work out plans to convene the trilateral foreign ministerial meeting on the fringes of international conferences through 2016, says the Japan Times. During the Mongolia-Korea Economic Forum, held earlier this week, some high officials from the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Korea visited Ulaanbaatar and held meeting at the Mongolia Ministry of Defense concerning the same issue.