S. Korea, U.S. to hold working-level security meeting next week

SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and the United States plan to hold a working-level meeting on diplomatic and military affairs, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said Tuesday.

The Pol-Mil consultation, also known as the "two-plus-two meeting," will be held in Washington on Monday, attended by two officials from each side.

From the South Korean side, Chang Ho-jin, director-general at the foreign ministry, and Ryu Je-seung, head of the defense ministry's policy planning bureau, are scheduled to participate in the meeting, while Joseph Donovan, deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs and Michael Schiffer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, represent the U.S. government.

"The two sides will review the pending diplomatic and security issues of mutual concern," Yonhap said, quoting its source, adding that the two sides have yet to come up with whether to regularize the meeting.

The upcoming meeting came as President Lee Myung-bak and President Barack Obama agreed in their summit last month in Seoul to hold a two-plus-two meeting among their top diplomats and military officials in 2010, by the time of the 60th anniversary ofthe outbreak of the Korean War.

The exact time and venue has not been decided yet, with the director-general-level officials expected to consult on the issue in next week's session, Yonhap said.