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Choi Jong-Geon, the new 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, visited the United States today (10th) at the invitation of the US State Department.
Regarding the recent conflict between the United States and China, Vice Minister Choi said that the ROK-US alliance is the basis for we are not engaged in equidistant diplomacy with the United States and China.
This is Kim Yoon-soo, correspondent 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 proposed the participation of South Korea 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 sides 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 other issues between Korea and the United States, such as cooperation with Corona 19 and the expansion of the G7 Summit, and wide discussion is expected to proceed.