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South Korean Foreign Ministry Kang Kyung-wha (left) with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, DC, on Mar. 29. (Hankyoreh archives)
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S. Korean foreign minister and US secretary of state discuss Trump’s upcoming visit to Seoul
During a telephone call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the evening of June 16, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, who is currently visiting Russia, discussed US President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to South Korea at the end of this month and the attack on oil tankers that occurred in the Gulf of Oman, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on June 17. During a 15-minute conversation, MOFA said, Kang and Pompeo exchanged opinions about matters of mutual interest, including Trump’s visit to South Korea and affairs on the Korean Peninsula. The two diplomats said that Trump’s visit will be an important opportunity to discuss ways to achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and establish permanent peace there and to strengthen the South Korea-US alliance, and they agreed to remain in close consultation. After wrapping up the G20 summit, which is being held in Osaka on June 28–29, Trump plans to visit South Korea on June 29 to hold a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Now that Moon has returned from his tour of Northern Europe, Kang and Pompeo appear to have used their phone call to pick up the discussion where lower-level officials left off, the specific schedule of Trump’s visit and the agenda of his summit with Moon. While Trump’s visit to South Korea has yet to be officially confirmed or announced, observers believe it will likely last for two days. The attacks on oil tankers that the US has pinned on Iran also appear to have been a major topic in the discussion on Sunday. MOFA said that the two officials “voiced the need for close consultation between South Korea and the US in regard to a variety of issues including the recent attack on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and other developments in the Middle East and agreed to remain in frequent communication and consultation in relation to that.” A remark that was made by Pompeo during an appearance on a US broadcast by CBS suggests that he and Kang had a rather detailed discussion about the attacks during their phone conversation. During the televised interview, Pompeo said that the US did not want war with Iran but did not rule out a military response. Some of his remarks raised eyebrows: “I made a bunch of phone calls yesterday. I’ll make a whole bunch more calls today. The world needs to unite.” “China gets over 80 percent of its crude oil transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. South Korea, Japan — these nations are incredibly dependent on these resources,” Pompeo said. “We always defend freedom of navigation. We are going to work to build out a set of countries that have deep, vested interest in keeping that strait open to help us do that.” Pompeo’s remarks appear to indicate that the US means to recruit countries such as South Korea, China, and Japan that are highly dependent on crude oil from the Middle East to take part in a campaign to ensure free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
