Senior foreign ministry officials of South Korea and Guatemala will have a policy coordination meeting this week to discuss cooperation in various areas, including trade, economy and consular affairs, the South Korean foreign ministry said Wednesday.

The meeting will be held between Huh Tae-wan, director general of the ministry's bureau for Latin America affairs and his Guatemalan counterpart Georges De la Roche in Seoul on Friday, according to the ministry.

They will discuss issues of mutual concern, including intensifying cooperation in such areas as trade, investment, development and consular services, the ministry said.

During the meeting, the ministry said that it will highlight the steadily improving relations between the two countries in many areas since they established diplomatic ties in 1962 and call for more effort to expand exchanges going forward.

It also plans to ask for cooperation in resolving any challenges that Korean companies could be facing in Guatemala and seek the Guatemalan government's help for Korean businesses to join infrastructure projects in the country.

In addition, the ministry said that it will explain in detail the latest tense security situation on the Korean Peninsula, which has been prompted by North Korea's repeated provocations, and ask for the Latin American country's continued cooperation in global efforts to denuclearize the reclusive state.