Korean foreign minister and Blinken discuss key issues in Peru

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Korean foreign minister and Blinken discuss key issues in Peru

Published: 15 Nov. 2024, 09:47

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, left, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meet on the margins of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Lima, Peru, on Thursday. [MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS]

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have met on the margins of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Peru and discussed an array of issues ranging from bilateral ties to North Korea's troop dispatch to Russia, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.

In the meeting held in Lima on Thursday, both sides expressed concerns over North Korea and Russia's deepening military cooperation as an illicit one that gravely threatens the security of both the Indo-Pacific and Europe, according to the ministry.

In this sense, they agreed to closely cooperate on the issue amid the possibility of Russia providing military assistance to the North in return for the deployment.

Blinken stressed that bipartisan support for the South Korea-U.S. alliance remains strong and said major accomplishments of the alliance will likely be smoothly handed over to the new administration.

Cho introduced Seoul's efforts for the successful organization of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on plastic pollution, set to be held in the southeastern port city of Busan, in which Blinken expressed support.

The latest meeting came two weeks after Cho and Blinken met in Washington, D.C., late last month for the "two plus two" meeting that was joined by the defense chiefs of the two nations.

Yonhap