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Choi Jong-Geon, the new 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, visited the US today (10th) at the invitation of the US State Department.
Regarding the recent conflict between the US and China, Vice Minister Choi said that the ROK-US alliance is the basis, and that we are not engaged in equidistant diplomacy with the US-China.
Correspondent Yunsoo Kim reports from Washington.
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First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choi Jong-Geon visited the United States at the invitation of the US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegan, who also served as the US Special Representative to North Korea.
In relation to the recent conflict, Vice Minister Choi said the ROK-US alliance is fundamental.
It is economically very close to China, but it drew a line that our government is not engaged in equidistant diplomacy with the US, China.
[Jong-Geon Choi/ 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs: The Republic of Korea and the United States are allies.
Being an alliance is the basis of our diplomatic and security.]
Earlier, Minister Vegan suggested Korea's participation by proposing the'Quad Plus' initiative as an Indo-Pacific security consultative body to contain China.
Therefore, there is a high possibility that the persuasion of the American side to split the side will become more persistent in this meeting.
As Vice Minister Choi has been involved in the issue of defense cost contributions since the days of the Blue House Peace Planning Secretary, this issue is likely to become a major agenda.
[Jong-Geon Choi/ 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs: Originally, I was communicating, and I came from the dimension of a continuous line of calls.
We haven't talked about any specific issues yet.]
In addition, there are many current issues between Korea and the United States, such as cooperation in Corona 19 and expansion of the G7 Summit, and wide discussion is expected to proceed.