Tripartite consultations set for next Mon.

Korea, the United States and Japan will hold a working-level meeting in Seoul on March 26 to coordinate policies on North Korea, the Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry announced Wednesday.

Chief delegates to the first tripartite talks since the inauguration of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush are deputy foreign affairs minister Yim Sung-Joon; U.S. acting assistant secretary of state Thomas Habbard; and Kunihiko Makida, Asian affairs bureau director of Japan`s Foreign Ministry.

The bilateral Korea-U.S. meeting is to take place in the morning followed by the Korea-U.S.-Japan tripartite meeting and the U.S.-Japan talks in the afternoon. At the meetings, the three nations are expected to exchange views on the outcomes of the recent summits between President Kim and U.S. President Bush and between Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, the background of Pyongyang`s unilateral postponement of the inter-Korean ministerial talks and the direction of tripartite policy cooperation with regard to the North Korean question.

A government official said that although the Bush administration`s review of its North Korea policy is still underway, the three allies would do their best to promote far-reaching discussions, adding that the start of the trilateral policy coordination effort itself was significant.

Meanwhile, it has yet to be determined what the tripartite body will be named, although the three nations are considering using the Trilateral Consultation Meeting, replacing the existing Trilateral Consultation and Oversight Group (TCOG).