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A senior official from the U.S. Department of State responsible for public diplomacy is scheduled to visit South Korea and Japan.

According to the State Department on Wednesday the 24th, Dylan Johnson, Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs, will visit Thailand, South Korea, and Japan from today through July 1.

Assistant Secretary Johnson, who served as deputy spokesperson for Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, has been overseeing the Bureau of Global Public Affairs since January. He was also appointed as an external communications officer for the White House National Security Council (NSC) on January 30, 2026, and currently serves in both capacities.

Although a detailed itinerary has not been disclosed, Assistant Secretary Johnson’s trip is expected to involve meetings with high-ranking foreign ministry officials and public affairs representatives to coordinate strategic messaging, public diplomacy initiatives, and unified international communication plans among allies.

In particular, building on recent regional cooperation such as the U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral coordination secretariat meetings, he is expected to express a unified position on Indo-Pacific security and trilateral defense cooperation.

As the head of global public affairs, Johnson's agenda includes strengthening media cooperation frameworks to protect the democratic information ecosystem and to counter shared cyber security and information threats in East Asia.

Furthermore, given that Johnson, who previously served as a Special Assistant to the President and White House Communications Director, is currently an external communications officer for the NSC, he is expected to directly convey the Trump administration's regional security and economic expectations to local media and leadership.

Recently, South Korea and the United States have been pursuing cooperation across multiple fronts.

On June 18, South Korea officially established the "Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Corporation," a government-backed investment agency, to oversee a $350 billion investment pledge to the United States.

On June 9, the South Korean Cabinet approved a presidential decree to invest $200 billion in cutting-edge U.S. technologies (AI, semiconductors, critical minerals, and supply chains) and $150 billion directly into the U.S. shipbuilding industry.

Despite this progress, fundamental trade tensions remain. On June 18, 2026, U.S. domestic solar manufacturers filed a petition with the Department of Commerce for an anti-circumvention investigation, claiming that South Korean solar cells, such as those from Hanwha Qcells, are being used to evade tariffs imposed on Chinese products. Additionally, the U.S. implemented a 12.5% tariff increase on certain items earlier this month, citing labor compliance issues.

Prior to that, from June 2 to 3, First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yun-ju and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Alison Hooker initiated their first working-level talks in Seoul. The two sides negotiated the complex conditions necessary to amend the bilateral civil nuclear agreement. This would grant South Korea expanded authority for uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing to fuel its planned nuclear submarine project. A second round of detailed negotiations is being pursued in Washington next month.

Furthermore, from June 22 to 23, the two countries held a defense industry cooperation meeting focused on integrating South Korea's manufacturing capabilities into the U.S. military supply chain. Key topics included joint development of advanced weapon systems, AI-based battlefield technology, and South Korean Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) support for U.S. naval vessels.

U.S. NNP = Representative Reporter Hong Seong-gu / Special Correspondent for this publication NNP info@newsandpost.com