Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing to ‘expedite’ preparations for trilateral summit

THE top diplomats of South Korea, Japan and China on Sunday (Nov 26) reaffirmed the need to hold a trilateral summit at the “earliest” possible time, Seoul’s foreign minister said following their first three-way meeting in more than four years.

The foreign-minister-level meeting in the southern port city of Busan between Park Jin, Yoko Kamikawa and Wang Yi came as Beijing has been showing growing concern over Tokyo and Seoul’s deepening security ties with Washington.

It also comes days after North Korea successfully placed its first military spy satellite into orbit, prompting the suspension of a five-year-old military accord between the two Koreas that was intended to de-escalate tensions on the peninsula.

The holding of a summit between the leaders of South Korea, Japan and China topped the foreign ministers’ meeting agenda.

“The three ministers reaffirmed ... to hold the summit, the pinnacle of the trilateral cooperation system, at the earliest, mutually convenient time,” South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin told reporters following the talks.

“We agreed to expedite the necessary preparations,” he added, without giving a specific time frame for the summit.

No leaders’ summit has been held since 2019, in part due to diplomatic and historical disputes between South Korea and its former colonial ruler Japan.

Legal disputes over Japan’s 1910-1945 rule over the peninsula persist between the two countries.

Last Thursday, a South Korean court ruling ordered Japan to compensate 16 women for forced sexual slavery during World War II, overturning a lower-court ruling that had dismissed the case.

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South Korea, Japan, China to hold summit at 'earliest' possible time

At a bilateral meeting with her South Korean counterpart ahead of the three-way talks, Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa called the ruling “extremely regrettable” and requested Seoul to take measures to correct the “violation of international law”. AFP