The first round of negotiations between South Korea and the United States to implement the security agreements reached between the two countries' leaders, including on nuclear-powered submarines and nuclear energy, will begin on December 2 and 3.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Saturday that the two countries will hold a launch meeting in Seoul on December 2-3 to discuss follow-up measures on the security portion of the Joint Fact Sheet from the Korea-US summit. The Korean delegation will be a pan-government team led by First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo, including officials from the Presidential Office's National Security Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Climate and Energy, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission.
The US delegation will be composed of Allison Hooker, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, along with officials from the White House National Security Council (NSC), the State Department, the Department of Energy, and the Department of War.
The US State Department also announced that Under Secretary Hooker will lead a pan-government delegation to visit Korea from June 1 to 3 to advance the nuclear cooperation initiative produced at the Korea-US summit last October.
The launch meeting is expected to take up the security agenda items agreed upon by the leaders of the two countries at their October summit, including the construction of nuclear-powered submarines, securing rights to uranium enrichment and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, and shipbuilding cooperation.
The government is said to have prepared in close consultation between Korean and US working-level officials so that substantive progress can be made starting from the launch meeting.
