South Korea and the United States could explore expanding bilateral energy cooperation dialogue to a trilateral format involving Japan in the future, given the importance Washington puts on its two Asian allies, a U.S. official said Friday. Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Energy Resources, made the remarks in response to a reporter's question on such prospects, days after the U.S. and South Korea held their bilateral energy dialogue in Houston, Texas, earlier this week. "I think there is a possibility for us to do more, in the North Asia context, leveraging what the United States has strongly supported in terms of the deeper cooperation between Japan, Korea and the United States," Pyatt said during an online press briefing. While agreeing that the energy area certainly offers opportunities for the three countries, Pyatt struck a cautious note in that developing such possibilities would need "more work." "The relationships are different. I could imagine the U.S.-Japan-K orea relationship meeting that test, but that's going to require more work by all of us, and we're not quite there yet," he said. "But this is very much something that's on the agenda as we look to the future," Pyatt said. In the latest Energy Security Dialogue, Pyatt said he and his South Korean counterpart, Kim Hee-sang, deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, discussed efforts to secure critical energy supply chains, such as solar energy, away from Chinese dependence on sourcing. The discussions also included talks on ways to work together to accelerate the clean energy transition in Southeast Asia and across the Indo-Pacific, Pyatt added. On South Korea's energy dependence on Russia, such as coal imports, Pyatt noted that reducing the portion of fossil fuels is more of a broader goal to achieve the green energy transition than a matter concerning the ties with Russia. "Korea has already gone to zero on certain key fossil energy imports from Russia, its imports of Russian liquefied natural gas d own by about half, compared to before the full-scale invasion began," he said. "It's less a matter of phasing out of Russia than phasing out of coal writ large. This is a goal which the Korean government shares ... every country will have to manage this transition out of coal in a way that is sustainable." Source: Yonhap News Agency