A united front on North Korea and trade, but sticking points remain

Tokyo

THE leaders of Japan, China and South Korea may have put on a united front on North Korea and free trade at a trilateral summit on Wednesday morning, but by press time, they had still not issued a joint declaration of their meeting.

In feel-good remarks after a 75-minute meeting - their first in over 2½ years - they stuck largely to broad strokes without diving into the finer details that are at the root of their disagreements.