Top diplomats of Korea, China and Japan meet for first time in four years

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Top diplomats of Korea, China and Japan meet for first time in four years

Published: 26 Nov. 2023, 19:05 Updated: 27 Nov. 2023, 09:22

From left, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi enters a meeting room at Nurimaru APEC House in Haeundae, Busan, on Sunday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan held their first meeting in more than four years in Busan on Sunday.

The last time the foreign ministers from all three countries held a trilateral meeting was in August 2019.

This also marks the Chinese foreign minister's first visit to South Korea since President Yoon Suk Yeol assumed office last year.

No joint press briefing was held after the meeting between South Korean Minister Park Jin, Chinese Minister Wang Yi and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.

However, before the meeting, Park said that he hoped the latest meeting would serve as an opportunity to push forward a summit between the leaders of three countries in the near future.

“There is huge potential between South Korea, Japan and China,” Park said. “However, it is also true that there have been many ups and downs in the cooperation between the three countries depending on the international political situation and bilateral relationships.”

According to the South Korean Foreign Ministry, Park also had separate meetings with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts.

One of the key issues raised during the bilateral meetings was North Korea.

The meeting in Busan took place amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea’s recent launch of a reconnaissance satellite as well as the alleged arms deals between Pyongyang and Moscow.

The trilateral relationship between the three countries has grown more complicated than ever as the long-frosty ties between South Korea and Japan have quickly thawed this year while South Korea and China have grown estranged.

According to the South Korean Foreign Ministry, the meeting between Park and Wang took two hours, with the South Korean minister reportedly asking China to play a more constructive role regarding North Korea, adding that ending North Korea’s provocations is in China's interests as well.

Wang reportedly responded by saying that China would play its part in stabilizing tensions on the Peninsula, but he also said the United States bore responsibility for the situation, adding that issues regarding North Korea should be handled with balance.

Park also raised concerns about North Korean defectors in China being repatriated.

The bilateral meeting between the two was their first since July, when they met during the ASEAN Summit in Indonesia.

In a separate bilateral meeting between the South Korean and Japanese ministers, the two top diplomats jointly condemned North Korea’s launch last week of a reconnaissance satellite using ballistic missile technology.

According to the foreign ministries of both countries, Park and Kamikawa stressed that North Korea’s latest action was a clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and raised concerns over Pyongyang's frequent ballistic missile launches.

However, Kamikawa expressed the Japanese government's regret over a recent ruling by the South Korean appellate court ordering Japan to pay compensation to Korean women forced into wartime sexual slavery by the Japanese military.

According to a statement released by the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Kamikawa said it was regrettable that Seoul High Court had rendered a judgment that denied the principle of state immunity under international law.

Seoul High Court last week overturned a lower court ruling from five years ago that dismissed a lawsuit from 16 former "comfort women." In so doing, it ordered Japan to compensate the plaintiffs.

The court denied Japan’s claim of sovereign immunity, saying that under recent trends in common law, illegal acts committed by the state are not covered by state immunity.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [[email protected]]