SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president reportedly called for a greater Chinese role in addressing concerns about North Korean nuclear threats during a meeting with the visiting Chinese prime minister on Sunday, at the eve of a trilateral meeting involving the Japanese leader.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held bilateral talks on Sunday to discuss ways to improve cooperation and other issues. They were due to meet on Monday for a trilateral session, the first time in more than four years.
No major announcement is expected at Monday’s three-way meeting. But observers say the resumption of their three-way talks at the highest level is a good sign and suggests the three Asian neighbors want to improve relations. Their trilateral meeting was supposed to take place annually but had been stalled since the last one in December 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the complex ties between the three countries.
Yoon and Li agreed to launch a new South Korean-Chinese dialogue channel involving senior diplomats and defense officials in mid-June. They also agreed to resume negotiations to expand the free trade agreement and reactivate dormant agencies on personnel exchanges, investments and other issues, Yoon’s office said.
Chinese state media reported that Li told Yoon that the two countries should ensure the stability of their deeply intertwined industrial and supply chains and resist turning economic and trade issues into political and security-related issues.
Yoon also asked China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, to contribute to promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula, while talking about North Korea’s nuclear program and deepening military ties with Russia, according to reports in the South Korean media.
Yoon’s office could not immediately confirm the report. But it said that during their separate meeting, Yoon and Kishida expressed concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program and agreed to strengthen their cooperation with the United States.
South Korea, Japan and the US have long urged China – North Korea’s key ally and economic pipeline – to use its power to convince the North to give up its nuclear ambitions. But China is suspected of fully enforcing UN sanctions on North Korea and sending clandestine aid shipments to help its impoverished neighbor stay afloat.
North Korea’s nuclear program and other sensitive topics such as China’s claim to self-ruled Taiwan and territorial disputes in the South China Sea are not among the official agenda items for Monday’s trilateral meeting. South Korean officials said a joint statement after Monday’s meeting will address the leaders’ discussion on cooperation in areas such as people-to-people exchanges, climate change, trade, health issues, technology and disaster relief.
The three neighboring countries are important trading partners and their cooperation is crucial to promoting regional peace and prosperity. Together they account for approximately 25% of global gross domestic product. But the three countries have repeatedly become embroiled in bitter disputes over a range of historical and diplomatic issues arising from Japan’s wartime atrocities. The rise of China and a boost from the US are strengthening Asian alliances and have also had a significant impact on their three-way relations in recent years.
Experts say South Korea, China and Japan now share a need to improve ties. South Korea and Japan want better ties with China because it is their largest trading partner. China, for its part, likely believes that further strengthening cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the US would harm its national interests.
China, meanwhile, has sent its prime minister, the country’s second-largest official, to the trilateral leaders’ meeting since the first session in 2008. Observers say China previously argued that its prime minister was mainly responsible for economic matters under the then collective leadership. business and best suited to attend the meeting, which focuses largely on economic issues.
But they say China may face more demands for President Xi Jinping’s presence because he has concentrated power in his hands and defied norms of collective leadership.
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Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Simina Mistreanu in Taipei, Taiwan contributed to this report.
Hyung Jin Kim, The Associated Press
