SEOUL– A high-profile symposium on South Korea-U.S. ties and Korean Peninsula issues got under way here Friday, involving senior government officials, politicians and security experts, less than a month after the launch of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.
Co-hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Seoul and the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank based in the capital, the event opened at a local hotel with the title of “Celebrating Korea-US Relations: 140 Years and Beyond.”
Foreign Minister Park Jin and Christopher Del Corso, charge d’affaires ad interim at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, will deliver their speeches during an opening ceremony. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is sending a congratulatory message via video link.
Sung Kim, the Joe Biden administration’s point man on Pyongyang who is in Seoul for his talks with South Korean and Japanese counterparts, plans to join an afternoon session on the Korean Peninsula and North Korea.
Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former negotiator of a South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, is to attend panel discussions on economic security and the role of the private sector.
Korea’s Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) and the United States established diplomatic relations under the 1882 Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, and the first U.S. diplomatic envoy arrived in Korea in 1883.
Source: Yonhap News Agency