Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Friday.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told a daily briefing that the foreign ministerial talks are part of ongoing bilateral consultations.

The meeting is the first strategic ministerial-level talks between the two countries in four years since then Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met in January 2006.

Yu and Clinton are expected to discuss the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, North Korea's nuclear issue and the Group of 20 global financial summit.