Leaders of South Korea, Japan and China to meet and discuss North Korea
The three nations have held regular trilateral summits since 2008; next week’s session comes amid high-profile diplomatic efforts to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons
Leaders of South Korea, Japan and China will meet next week for a summit meeting expected to focus on North Korea’s nuclear programme and other regional issues.
The three Asian countries have been holding regular trilateral summits since late 2008. Next week’s session, the seventh, comes amid a flurry of high-profile diplomatic meetings aimed at ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons.
When the inter-Korean summit went off script and tensions surfaced
Last week, the leaders of North and South Korea met at a border village and agreed on a number of steps aimed at reconciliation. Their summit, however, did not produce a breakthrough in the North Korean nuclear issue.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump are expected to meet in several weeks.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in will attend next Wednesday’s meeting in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, South Korea’s presidential office said Tuesday.
The Japanese government confirmed the meeting.
Moon’s office said he would brief Abe and Li about the results of his meetings with Kim. It said that Moon also plans to discuss ways to boost three-way cooperation toward achieving denuclearisation and permanent peace on the Korean peninsula.
Why Korean denuclearisation could hang on question of trust
South Korea, Japan and China are closely linked economically. But anti-Japanese sentiment still runs deep in South Korea and China because of territorial and historical disputes dating back to Tokyo’s colonisation of the Korean peninsula and invasion of China in the first half of the 20th century.
Further complicating their relations, Seoul and Tokyo are key US allies, while Beijing is North Korea’s last major ally.
