Toward a regularized tripartite summit

Diplomatic circles raise the possibility of the leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan holding a tripartite summit on a regular basis — just like the QUAD, a quadrilateral security consultative body among the U.S., Japan, India and Australia. Diplomats from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are reportedly discussing the regularization of the trilateral summit to reach a conclusion in Camp David, where the leaders meet on Aug. 18. We will welcome it if a close communication channel is established among the three countries to deal with the mounting nuclear threat from North Korea. Leaders of the three countries have so far met on the sidelines of multilateral summits. But there was no security consultative apparatus among the three countries. The trilateral summit in Camp David was proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden on the occasion of the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima in May.

Former President Lee Myung-bak was invited to Camp David in April 2008 as a first for a Korean president by U.S. President George W. Bush. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s upcoming visit to the U.S. president’s official country residence in Maryland will be the second time. The summit carries great significance as it could lead to regular meetings among the three heads of state.

In a press conference in Washington, Cho Hyun-dong, the ambassador to the U.S., said that the first exclusive tripartite summit will help raise their cooperation to a new level thanks initially to the improvement of bilateral relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

The three leaders are expected to discuss ways to cooperate to share early missile warning systems to cope with the North’s nuclear provocations; to reinforce a tripartite cooperation on the Indo-Pacific and beyond; to facilitate the rule-based international order; and to respond to challenges to global security. Given the unique fashion of the summit — free discussions unconstrained by formalities or topics — we hope the three leaders will have more candid dialogue than before.

North Korea held a massive military parade in Pyongyang on July 27 to celebrate what it calls the Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War. The country even invited high-level officials from Russia and China to show off their close relations. North Korea is expected to make another provocation during August, when the Camp David summit will be held and the Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise will be conducted. The Yoon administration should consider the China risk even while strengthening the trilateral cooperation in Camp David, and must engage in diplomacy to help reactivate the tripartite summit with Japan and China.