FM Cho holds phone talks with Blinken on outcome of China trip

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul spoke by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said, following Cho’s visit to China earlier this week.

Cho used the phone conversation to share the outcome of his recent trip to Beijing, which included bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, and other discussions on pending issues related to North Korea, the ministry said in a release.

Cho explained to Blinken that his visit to China “was significant in that the two countries had agreed to manage bilateral relations stably, based on the deepening of understanding of each other’s positions through candid and open dialogue,” the ministry said.

Blinken, in response, expressed interest in the progress related to a widely expected trilateral summit among the leaders of South Korea, China and Japan, and suggested that Seoul and Washington continue close consultations over issues of common interest.

The two sides also discussed the growing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, and efforts to establish an alternative to the U.N. monitoring panel on the enforcement of North Korean sanctions, as the panel ended after Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution on extending its mandate.