Foreign minister nominee Cho Tae-yul has vowed to pursue more extensive and swift cooperation among South Korea, the U.S. and Japan that became institutionalized with the Camp David summit last August.

Cho made the comments on Monday during his confirmation hearing as he pledged to further solidify the South Korea-U.S. alliance while continuing current efforts to improve Seoul-Tokyo ties.

On China, the nominee said he will focus on the development of bilateral trust rather than the speed and scope of the ties in a bid to thoroughly pursue substantial cooperation projects in the future.

During Monday's hearing, Cho, a second vice foreign minister under the former Park Geun-hye administration, was bombarded with questions from opposition lawmakers on speculation that he was involved in an alleged deal between the judiciary and the then-Park government.

The judiciary was suspected of delaying a ruling on a compensation suit filed by victims of Japan's wartime forced labor as desired by the Park government in order to expand the dispatch of judges overseas.

Responding to such suspicions, Cho contended that the incident does not constitute judicial power abuse.