SEOUL: South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun plans to visit Japan and the United States later this week to hold talks with his counterparts of the two countries, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Monday.
Cho will make a two-day trip to Tokyo starting Tuesday and meet one-on-one with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, before flying to Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday (US time), the ministry said.
The talks with Iwaya will be followed by a working dinner, it added.
They will mark Cho's first bilateral talks with his respective Japanese and US counterparts since taking office early last week.
Cho's two-nation swing comes as South Korea's tariff negotiations with the US are at a critical juncture this week amid the looming August 1 deadline set by the Donald Trump administration. Unless a trade deal is reached, South Korean goods will be subject to a 25 per cent US reciprocal tariff and sectoral duties.