(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) South Korea plans to hold strategic talks with the United States, China and Japan within the next month to cope with rising security challenges facing Northeast Asia, government sources said Sunday. The plan comes as China unilaterally drew a new air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea that overlaps similar lines draw by South Korea and Japan, as well as a move by Tokyo to seek an aggressive policy on its right to collective self-defense that could allow the country to project it forces beyond its borders, state-run Yonhap news agency reported. Official insiders said Seoul is in consultation with neighboring countries to work out dates for senior-level talks aimed at diffusing tensions. They said talks between Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Zhang Yesui, executive vice minister of foreign affairs are being sought. "Efforts are being made to arrange talks as soon as possible, with the meeting likely to take place within the year," said an official, who declined to be identified. He added that strategic talks are planned with senior Japanese officials, which will be the first talks between senior foreign ministry officials since President Park Geun-hye took office in late February. Kim's counterpart in any talks will likely be Vice Minister Akitaka Saiki, with Seoul making a point of insisting that any expansion of Tokyo's policy on its right to collective defense must not compromise South Korea's national security. In addition to this meeting, Seoul may be striving to hold a "two-plus-two meeting" between general manager officials from the two countries' foreign and defense ministries to discuss outstanding issues. All the meetings being pursued could help Seoul advance its national interests, while at the same time seek ways to ease tensions in the region. In particular, South Korea plans to ask China again to redraw its ADIZ. If this fails, it plans to inform Beijing that it too will expand its air identification zone, which currently does not cover the Ieodo Ocean Research Station, 149 kilometers southwest of Mara Island off Jeju. South Korea, moreover, will bring up the ADIZ topic in talks with the United States, which has also opposed China's move
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