1. On the sidelines of the ASEAN-related foreign ministerial meetings 2016 in Vientiane, Laos, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met bilaterally with Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn of Cambodia on July 24. In their meeting, the two top diplomats discussed the Republic of Korea-Cambodia relations across the board, the North Korean nuclear issue and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

2. The two Ministers, taking note of the remarkable progress in the bilateral ties in such sectors as trade, investment and people-to-people exchanges since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1997, agreed to work closely together for further progress.

3. Minister Yun, extending appreciation to Cambodia for issuing statement expressing a strong and principled position over North Korea’s nuclear test, noted that the statement demonstrates the united position of the international community regarding the North Korean nuclear issue.

° The Minister, bringing attention to the fact that strong messages to North Korea were issued at the recent rounds of the foreign ministerial meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), the G7 Summit and the ASEM Summit, asked Cambodia, the country coordinator for ASEAN-ROK dialogue relations, to cooperate for the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit to send such message to North Korea.

° Minister Prak Sokhonn responded that close cooperation will be rendered to the ROK with regard to the North Korean nuclear issue.

4. The ROK-Cambodia foreign ministerial meeting on July 24, the first of its kind since Minister Prak Sokhon took up the current post, is seen to have served as an opportunity to reaffirm the close bilateral coordination on the North Korean nuclear issue with Cambodia, the country coordinator for ASEAN-ROK dialogue relations.


* unofficial translation