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Chinese, Japanese and South Korean Ministers to Resume Three-Way Talks Chinese, Japanese and South Korean Ministers to Resume Three-Way Talks
(about 9 hours later)
SEOUL, South Korea — The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea were in Seoul on Saturday to hold their first trilateral talks in three years, in hopes of improving regional ties that have been strained by territorial and historical disputes. SEOUL, South Korea — In their first trilateral meeting in three years, the foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China recognized on Saturday the urgent need to stop North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, South Korean officials said.
South Korean officials said Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, Wang Yi and Fumio Kishida, would discuss re-establishing a “groundwork for trust-building and common prosperity.” South Korea’s foreign minister, Yun Byung-se, and his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, Wang Yi and Fumio Kishida, wrapped up a three-way meeting, as well as a series of bilateral talks, in Seoul on Saturday with a joint statement in which they said they would try to reopen six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons development.
The three countries’ foreign ministers began holding annual talks in 2007, which led to annual trilateral summit meetings beginning in 2008. But both forums were suspended after the 2012 meetings as persistent regional tensions worsened, notably over competing Chinese and Japanese claims to islands in the East China Sea. The six-nation talks, which also involved the United States, Russia and North Korea, have been dormant since 2008. The United States, South Korea and Japan have been deeply skeptical about resuming negotiations with North Korea unless it shows a willingness to bargain away its nuclear weapons, while the North insists on talks without conditions.
Highly emotional disputes rooted in the countries’ bitter 20th-century history — before its defeat in World War II, Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony and occupied parts of China — have created rifts that the three governments have tried to mend only in fits and starts over the years. In addition to the territorial disputes — South Korea and Japan have their own, over a different group of islets — both Beijing and Seoul say that Japan has not fully renounced its past militarism. Analysts and officials in the region fear that while the six-nation talks are suspended, North Korea may be progressing toward building nuclear warheads small enough to fit onto its missiles.
In Seoul on Saturday, attention was focused on whether the foreign ministers would pave the way for a resumption of trilateral summit meetings this year. But few analysts expected an easy breakthrough, given the thorny issues that still divide them — disputes that the ministers tried to address in a series of bilateral meetings before the three-way talks. North Korea is also believed to be increasing its stockpile of nuclear fuel through a newly disclosed uranium enrichment program, as well as through its recently restarted reactor that produces plutonium.
Entering a meeting with Mr. Yun, Mr. Wang told reporters that his delegation would raise “all issues” of interest to China. “We agreed to continue to exert our joint efforts to urgently stop the advancement of North Korea’s nuclear weapons capabilities and resume talks that can make concrete progress toward the denuclearization of North Korea,” Mr. Yun said during a joint news conference with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts.
Seoul and Beijing have recently exchanged barbs over Washington’s desire to deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea, which China has said it would consider a threat to its security. South Korea told China to stay out of its defense policy, though both Seoul and Washington say there has been no decision about deploying the system, which they say would be intended to counter missile threats from North Korea. In their statement, the three foreign ministers said they hoped their meeting in Seoul, which was intended to try to improve ties that have been strained by territorial and historical disputes, would open “a path for restoring a cooperative system” among the three neighbors. To that end, they said they would try to resume a three-way meeting “at an early date.”
Separately, China is urging both South Korea and Japan to join an Asian development bank funded largely by Beijing — a project that the United States has urged its allies not to participate in, characterizing it as an attempt to undermine the World Bank. The three countries’ foreign ministers began holding annual talks in 2007, which led to annual trilateral meetings beginning in 2008. But both forums were suspended after the 2012 meeting as persistent regional tensions worsened, notably over competing Chinese and Japanese claims to islands in the East China Sea.
Among the three countries’ current leaders, the only full-fledged bilateral summit meeting has been between President Xi Jinping of China and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, though Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan had a brief and apparently awkward meeting with Mr. Xi in November on the sidelines of a regional forum. Mr. Abe and Ms. Park met with President Obama last year to discuss North Korea during a nuclear summit meeting in The Hague. Highly emotional disputes rooted in the countries’ bitter 20th-century history — before its defeat in World War II, Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony and occupied parts of China — have created rifts that the three governments have tried to mend only in fits and starts over the years.
South Korean officials have said that a meeting between Ms. Park and Mr. Abe would be possible if Japan took steps to properly acknowledge the abuse of Korean women who said they were cheated or forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War II. But talks between the two governments have failed to narrow differences over that emotional issue. In addition to the territorial disputes — South Korea and Japan have their own, over a different group of islets — both Beijing and Seoul say that Japan has not fully renounced its past militarism.
In their joint statement, the three foreign ministers simply said they would continue to try to resolve their disputes “in a spirit of looking squarely at history.”