South Korea, China to meet next week for bilateral talks
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The talks will be attended by South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, with regional tensions as the top priority on the agenda.
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A journalist reads a local newspaper at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, on May 27, 2024. (AP)
Bilateral security and diplomatic talks in two plus two format are expected to occur between the foreign affairs and defense officials of China and South Korea next week, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap on Tuesday, citing diplomatic sources.
The talks will be attended by South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, the source relayed to Yonhap, adding that the regional tensions will be the top priority on the agenda.
In addition to bilateral cooperation and security issues, other topics are anticipated to be brought up, such as China's tensions with the US and broadening military connections between Russia and the DPRK.
Tensions along the border between South Korea and the DPRK have heightened as South Korea resumed propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers in response to Pyongyang's retaliatory sending of garbage balloons into the South.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have endured for an extended period as a result of systemic escalation on the part of Japan, the US, and South Korea.
The three nations have been conducting joint naval drills in the Korean peninsula and along the demilitarized zone, which has triggered major security concerns on the part of DPRK.
This comes a mere day after Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong stressed that the US is currently the biggest military threat in the South China Sea because it is turning the region into "the whirlpool of an arms race."
Sun said, "At present, the biggest security challenge in the South China Sea comes from outside the region," adding that China intends to resolve territorial disputes with neighboring countries in the South China Sea through dialogue.
He further asserted that US-led forces were "promoting military deployment and actions in the South China Sea, inciting and intensifying maritime disputes and contradictions, and damaging the legitimate rights and interests of coastal countries."
![In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had "engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)](https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2024/12/21/b4a69f2e-8682-43e4-9d37-49482b304ab3/3.png?v=2&format=webp "In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had \"engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)")
