South Korea holds meeting with China and Japan

South Korea, China and Japan began today a series of meetings in Seoul, ahead of their high-level trilateral talks this week, in which they will discuss the resumption of the stalled presidential summits.    

On Tuesday, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Chung Byung-won will hold talks in Seoul with Japanese First Vice Foreign Minister Takehiro Funakoshi and Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Nong Rong to discuss the resumption of the cooperation mechanism between the three neighboring countries.

Ahead of the three-way talks, Chung held separate meetings with his Japanese and Chinese counterparts on Monday, in the middle of a boost in the resumption of a possible trilateral summit at the level of heads of state and government.

Meanwhile, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin also met with Chung, Funakoshi and Nong on Monday.

Park noted that South Korea, Japan and China are close neighbors that cannot be separated, therefore, it is important to produce concrete beneficial results that the people of the three countries can perceive.

The trilateral summits, first held in December 2008, have been suspended since 2019 following a dispute between Seoul and Tokyo over compensation sentences for forced labor during wartime, and the Covid-19 pandemic.