By Lee Kap-soo

President Yoon Suk-yeol held a joint press conference with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David, a U.S. presidential villa in Maryland, on Aug. 18 (local time).

At the conference, President Yoon said, "Today, the three leaders of Korea have opened a new chapter in cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan." 

President Yoon said, "In addition to the regularization of the Korea-U.S.-Japan summit, officials from all three countries, including foreign ministers, defense ministers and national security advisers, will meet annually in each field to closely coordinate cooperation between the three countries."

Yoon said, "We decided to establish a cooperative system in various fields such as global health and women, along with the establishment of a consultative body for development policy cooperation, along with the establishment of the Korea-U.S.-Japan humanity dialogue and economic security dialogue led by the NSC of the three countries."

He also said, "We will hold a youth summit between South Korea, the U.S., and Japan to strengthen ties between future generations."

On the ways to strengthen trilateral security cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, President Yoon said, "We discussed practical cooperation measures to enhance the joint capacity to respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats."

"We agreed on the importance of defense drills between the three countries to respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, and agreed to conduct South Korea, U.S. and Japan drills according to the annual plan," he said.

"We will double our efforts to monitor and block the exploitation of labor and human rights to finance North Korea's nuclear and missile development, and establish a working group to respond to North Korean cyber activities between the three countries to prevent North Korea from raising illegal funds," he said.