FM Cho to attend Munich security conference this week: foreign ministry

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul will travel to Germany later this week to attend a multilateral security conference, officials said Monday, amid attention to whether he would have talks with new U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Cho will participate in the 61st Munich Security Conference, set for Friday through Sunday, during which he is “expected to discuss the Russia-North Korea military cooperation and the security links between the Indo-Pacific and Europe, including the ongoing war in Ukraine,” a foreign ministry official said.

It will mark Cho’s first overseas trip since the political turmoil in South Korea triggered by now impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law attempt in December last year.

Cho has been seeking to use the occasion in Munich to hold what will be his first meeting with Rubio, if the U.S. top diplomat joins the sessions, and also meet with his counterparts from Japan and China on the sidelines.

Cho had planned to visit Washington for talks with Rubio before heading to Germany, but the plan reportedly changed due to Rubio’s other diplomatic commitments, according to diplomatic sources.

Japanese news media have reported that the top diplomats of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are in talks to arrange a trilateral meeting on the margins of the conference.

Following the trip to Germany, Cho is widely expected to fly to Johannesburg to attend the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Group of 20 nations, slated for Feb. 20-21.