Foreign Minister Park Jin will visit the Netherlands and Germany next week to attend multilateral meetings.
In particular, as foreign ministers are expected to hold talks with Japan during their visit to Germany, attention is focusing on whether the biggest conflict between South Korea and Japan will be able to narrow the differences over the resolution of compensation for forced labor during the Japanese occupation.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 9th, Minister Park will attend the ‘High-Level Meeting for the Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)’ to be held in The Hague, Netherlands for two days on the 15th and 16th, followed by the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany on the 17th and 19th. attend
Among them, the ‘High-Level Meeting for the Responsible Military Use of AI’ is co-hosted by the governments of the two countries in accordance with the agreement reached during the political party meeting between the Republic of Korea and the Netherlands in November last year. It was launched at the initiative of the Dutch government to discuss ways to improve cooperation among various stakeholders.
As the chief representative of the co-host country, Minister Park will attend the ministerial session and closing ceremony of the high-level meeting scheduled for the 16th. Representatives of international organizations, businesses, and civil society will also be present at the meeting, including high-ranking officials from the governments of the Netherlands, the United States, Japan, Switzerland, and Pakistan, Izumi Nakamitsu, the United Nations High Representative for Disarmament, and Eric Schmidt, former chairman of Google.
After attending the meeting, Minister Park plans to pay a visit to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and participate in the strategic dialogue between the foreign ministers of the Republic of Korea and the Netherlands, which was agreed upon at last year’s summit.
Afterwards, Minister Park will attend the MSC on the 17th and 19th, “to introduce the Korean government’s Indo-Pacific strategy and plan to hold bilateral talks with ministers and other high-ranking officials from other countries,” said Im Soo-seok, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The MSC is Europe’s largest annual international security conference founded in the early 1960s.
Regarding whether a Korea-Japan foreign ministers’ meeting between Minister Park and Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa will be held on the occasion of the MSC, spokesman Lim explained, “We are currently coordinating bilateral talks with participants from major countries.”
If the foreign ministers’ meeting on the occasion of the MSC is successful, the two countries will continue to hold ministerial and vice-ministerial meetings next week, following the bilateral foreign ministers’ meeting on the occasion of the Korea-US-Japan Vice-Ministerial Council on Foreign Affairs, which will be held in Washington, DC on the 13th.
Diplomats believe that Korea and Japan will in fact finalize the issue surrounding the solution to compensation for forced labor through a series of talks between foreign ministers and vice ministers next week.
Source: Donga
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