S. Korea, U.S. working for 'successful' 1st summit between Yoon, Biden

SEOUL, April 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is working closely with a U.S. advance team to prepare for a successful first summit between President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden, officials said Monday.

Yoon and Biden are expected to hold their first summit in Seoul around May 20-22 before the U.S. president travels to Japan to attend a Quad meeting. A U.S. advance team, including senior White House official Edgard Kagan, is currently in Seoul to coordinate the details.

"We are getting fully ready to successfully host the first South Korea-U.S. summit after the launch of the new administration, such as through close consultations with the U.S. advance team," a team of Yoon aides said in a statement on the result of their nine-day trip to Washington.

During the visit, the seven-member team, headed by Foreign Minister nominee Park Jin, held wide-ranging policy consultations with members of the U.S. government, Congress and think tanks.

"Through our U.S. visit, we were able to affirm our country's heightened status and capability, as well as the United States' changed expectations for our expanded regional and global role," the delegation said.

"The U.S. side assessed South Korea to be a true 'core ally,' and expressed high expectations for cooperation with the new government and our expanded role as a 'global leading nation,'" it added.

The delegation also said the two sides agreed on the need to upgrade their military and security alliance to a comprehensive strategic alliance covering economic security, technology and regional and global cooperation, with special focus on making economic security cooperation a key axis of the alliance.

hague@yna.co.kr
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