U.S. Deputy Secretary of State to Visit Korea and Japan Next Week... Coordinating Trilateral Cooperation and North Korea Response

Kurt Campbell, the second-highest official at the U.S. Department of State and the chief coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, will visit South Korea and Japan next week.

Campbell announced this on the 10th (local time) during a speech at the U.S.-Japan Business Conference held in Washington DC. After meeting key figures in the new cabinet led by newly appointed Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru in Japan, Campbell is scheduled to visit Seoul. He explained that during this visit, he will coordinate issues such as the establishment of a trilateral cooperation secretariat among the three countries: South Korea, the U.S., and Japan.

Additionally, during his visit to South Korea, Campbell is expected to address the possibility of high-intensity provocations by North Korea around the U.S. presidential election on November 5 and discuss responses to such threats. Furthermore, the schedule for a trilateral summit among South Korea, the U.S., and Japan is likely to be discussed in connection with upcoming multilateral summits such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru and the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Brazil, both held in November.

Campbell emphasized the importance of trilateral cooperation by stating, "The most important measure we can take in the Indo-Pacific is to build a stronger, more stable, and more forward-looking trilateral (South Korea-U.S.-Japan) relationship." He also mentioned, "If anything undermining the future spirit that binds these three countries occurs in South Korea or Japan, we will raise our voices." This is interpreted as a stance that the U.S. will not stand by if the trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the U.S., and Japan, or its broader Indo-Pacific diplomacy, is damaged due to strained South Korea-Japan relations.