PLANS FOR THREE-NATION SUMMIT AT G7

[Anchor Lead]

The South Korean, American and Japanese governments are working on a plan to hold separate talks at next month’s G7 Summit in London where President Moon Jae-in has been invited. The three-nation summit is in line with trilateral cooperation the Biden administration has been underlining in order to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

[Pkg]

A plan is underway to hold separate talks among the South Korean, American and Japanese leaders some twenty days after the ROK-US summit in Washington on Friday. A South Korean government official said the three governments are working out a schedule to hold a trilateral meeting at the G7 Summit to be held in London from June 11th to 13th. South Korea is not a member of the G7 but President Moon Jae-in has been invited. The separate summit is being led by the United States which has been emphasizing trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan and has been actively mediating between the two neighbors. National security advisers from the three countries met last month, while their foreign ministers and intelligence chiefs met earlier this month. The need for a trilateral summit was reportedly raised at these meetings.

[Soundbite] Antony Blinken (U.S. Secretary of State (May 3))

Seoul believes the three-way summit will be an important opportunity to coordinate North Korea policies. Japan’s Kyodo News reported that the U.S. is also positive about the summit. But the issue is Tokyo’s response. When South Korea’s intelligence chief Park Ji-won met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, he delivered Seoul’s willingness to normalize bilateral relations. But Suga reportedly remained non-committal. Speculation is also growing over a possible separate Korea-Japan summit on the sidelines of the G7 meeting. However, Japanese media reports that Tokyo remains tentative over such a summit.