U.S. eyes top-level talks with S. Korea, Japan next week

U.S. eyes top-level talks with S. Korea, Japan next week

By Lee Chi-dong
WASHINGTON, July 12 (Yonhap) -- The United States announced Tuesday that it plans to hold a tripartite foreign ministerial meeting with South Korea and Japan next week in Bali on the sidelines of an annual security forum.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to visit the Indonesian resort island to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, her department said. ASEAN stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"The United States looks forward to hosting a trilateral meeting with the government of Japan and the Republic of Korea," department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, making public the secretary's schedule for July 22.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and his Japanese counterpart, Takeaki Matsumoto, will also join the forum, which draws top diplomats from the 10 Southeast Asian nations and more than two dozen other nations, including the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas. The North Korean nuclear standoff is usually high on the agenda.
But Nuland did not specify the main topic of the trilateral session.
Meanwhile, she said, Clinton will also meet with the foreign ministers of the East Asia Summit (EAS) while in Bali, in preparation for President Barack Obama's participation for the first time in the EAS in Indonesia in November.
The EAS includes South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, India and New Zealand.
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