[Provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
[Provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in Paris on Tuesday (local time), discussing North Korea and other issues.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Cho and Rubio held a separate informal meeting and exchanged views on the overall state of the South Korea-US alliance, high-level exchanges and the North Korea issue, agreeing to work closely together to advance the bilateral relationship, including progress on agreements reached between the two leaders.

The meeting marked the first in-person encounter between the two ministers since the US midterm elections on Wednesday of last week. Cho and Rubio had also held a brief informal meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta on Oct. 30.

Ahead of the meeting, analysts had expected the two ministers to discuss progress in South Korea-US security consultations on follow-up tasks from the leaders' summit agreements — including South Korea's uranium enrichment and reprocessing for nuclear fuel and the procurement of fuel for nuclear-powered submarines — as well as South Korea's potential contribution to freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the readout released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that day included no specific details of discussions on those issues or any follow-up measures.


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