Washington, 18 August 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The United States, Japan and South Korea are set to strengthen their partnership at a Camp David summit on Friday in light of the tense security situation in the Pacific.

A series of security assurances are set to be decided upon at Friday's summit which was dubbed "historic" by a US government spokesperson.

These include a duty to consult with each other in security crises and an emergency hotline between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul, according to the White House.

Recent missile launches by North Korea have further troubled the three countries, who all share similar security concerns in the region.

US President Joe Biden invited Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to his retreat in the Catoctin Mountain area near Washington, which is historically only used for top-level meetings.

It is the first time Biden is using the venue for a summit and also the first isolated meeting between the three governments. The White House thus said Biden hopes to take "trilateral relations to a new height" at the summit.

The US president also "hopes that [Japan and South Korea] would be able to mend their ties," the White House said, as the two have traditionally had frosty relations.

Recently however, their security interests in light of North Korea's repeated missile launches and China's growing power ambitions have increasingly aligned.

The US meanwhile, is increasingly concerned with Beijing's trade practices and its proximity to Moscow after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

New security measures are set to act as a back-up in case of a crisis in the region that stretches from India to the Pacific Ocean.

Photo: EPA