Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is expected to meet U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the United States around Sept. 18, the same day the first investment project under Seoul's pledge to invest in the U.S. is set to be announced. The government appears set to use the investment as leverage to break a deadlock on bilateral issues that have made little progress.
A Foreign Ministry official told reporters on Sept. 15 that Cho's travel plans were "being coordinated with the U.S. side." Diplomatic authorities in Seoul and Washington are in final talks on a schedule under which Cho would arrive in Washington on Sept. 17 local time and the two ministers would meet around Sept. 18, according to sources.
The government is pushing to report the first U.S. investment project to the National Assembly on Sept. 17 and announce it jointly with Washington on Sept. 18. That would make the large-scale investment in the U.S. the first item agreed by the two presidents to enter a visible implementation phase.
Cho is expected to use progress on the investment as a springboard to discuss a wide range of pending issues between the two countries. Those include follow-up talks on security matters such as the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, the transfer of wartime operational control and the question of sending troops to the Strait of Hormuz. The Foreign Ministry official said the two ministers "will exchange views broadly to advance the South Korea-U.S. relationship, without setting a fixed agenda."
