Biden envisions Washington summit with Yoon, Kishida over Seoul-Tokyo thaw

US President Joe Biden has invited South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to Washington for a trilateral summit this summer to discuss how to "lock in" progress in ties between Seoul and Tokyo, and advance tripartite cooperation, a senior US official said Thursday, Report informs via Yonhap.

National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell made the remarks amid expectations that the thaw in relations between the Asian neighbors -- frayed over wartime history -- will help cement cooperation among the three countries in the face of growing North Korean threats and other challenges.

"President Biden extended an invitation to both Prime Minister Kishida and President Yoon to come to Washington later this summer for a three-way summit between the leaders," he said in a pre-recorded video speech for a peace forum hosted by Yonhap News Agency and Seoul's unification ministry.

"(In the envisioned summit), we will celebrate the remarkable progress that's been made in the bilateral relationship between Japan and South Korea, and to see what steps we can take to make sure we lock that progress in and to see what's possible to trilateralize areas of cooperation going forward," he added.

He was referring to the invitation that Biden offered during a trilateral meeting with Yoon and Kishida on the margins of the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, last month.

The proposed trilateral summit would mark the first such gathering arranged solely for their shared agenda, not on the sidelines of a multilateral forum.

It is expected to be another sign of the three countries tightening their solidarity amid security uncertainties stemming from the North Korean nuclear quandary, China's growing assertiveness and Russia's prolonged war in Ukraine, observers said.