Top diplomats of Seoul, Tokyo reaffirm ties, 3-way cooperation with Washington

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun has met with his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, in Turkey and discussed ways to bolster bilateral ties and trilateral cooperation also involving the United States, Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.

The meeting took place Tuesday in Ankara on the sidelines of the NATO summit and also followed a three-way meeting of the top diplomats of Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, according to the ministry.

At the meeting, Cho and Motegi pledged to deepen bilateral ties and expand cooperation between their countries, the ministry said.

They also pointed to the "shuttle diplomacy" between the two nations' leaders as a driving force behind collaboration across multiple sectors and agreed to build on that momentum so citizens of both countries feel the benefits more directly.

The two held talks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju in October last year.

At the latest trilateral meeting, Cho, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Motegi reaffirmed their commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and to pursuing continued dialogue with North Korea.

The three nations also signed a memorandum of understanding for accelerating cooperation on small modular reactor deployments in countries in the Indo-Pacific.

Yonhap