SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and his Japanese counterpart Takeshi Iwaya shared concerns over North Korea’s growing military ties with Russia among others, and agreed to work together with the United States, Japan’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Cho held his first meeting in Tokyo with Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya on Tuesday since taking up his post this month. He is next due to travel to the U.S. to support trade negotiations.
“They reaffirmed that they would continue to work closely together between Japan and the ROK, as well as among Japan, the ROK and the U.S.” the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.
North Korea is now fighting alongside Russia in the war against Ukraine. Thousands of North Korean troops were deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, while Pyongyang has also supplied Russia with munitions.
The Japanese ministry added that the two ministers also expressed concerns over North Korea’s “cryptocurrency thefts” that fund its nuclear and missile programs.
Cho and Iwaya had agreed to jointly respond to challenges, according to South Korea’s foreign ministry.
Japan, a U.S. major ally, already struck a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump that lowers tariffs on auto imports. But South Korea has yet to reach a deal on U.S. tariffs.
Cho will also have his first meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on July 31, as Seoul makes a final push to secure a trade deal to limit the impact of U.S. tariffs due to come into effect on August 1.
“The tariff negotiations are nearing an end. I will provide much support for this as well,” Cho told reporters in Seoul ahead of his departure to Japan.
“But more importantly, we will discuss how to cooperate between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan as well as strengthen the U.S. alliance in a comprehensive way.”
(Reporting by Jack Kim, Joyce Lee and Ju-min Park;Editing by Ed Davies and Peter Graff)
