Reactivating a safety net in Northeast Asia

President Yoon Suk Yeol met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Seoul on Sunday afternoon. The two foreign leaders came to Korea to participate in a trilateral summit that continues through Monday. The three countries launched the international body in 2011 to strengthen their tripartite cooperation on several issues. Since then, the three countries have alternated hosting the summit almost every year. But the face-to-face meetings came to a halt after their eighth iteration in Chengdu, China in December 2019 due to the breakout of Covid-19.

The reopening of the trilateral summit carries great significance. In Sunday’s bilateral meeting, President Yoon reportedly agreed with the Chinese premier to expand the two countries’ economic cooperation. In the following meeting with the Japanese prime minister, President Yoon reportedly discussed ways to issue a joint statement marking the 60th anniversary of the normalization of Seoul-Tokyo relations and address the ongoing Naver-Line Yahoo conflict. The leaders of China and Japan also held a bilateral meeting Sunday.

The three leaders will hold a trilateral meeting today to discuss pending issues which have undergone working-level discussions. They share a consensus on expanding human exchange with one another; reinforcing their cooperation to ensure sustainable growth; bolstering their collaboration on climate change, economy, trade and public health; finding effective support for their rapidly aging populations; cooperating on the digital transition of science and technology; and developing an efficient system to tackle natural disasters and other safety issues.

We hope the reactivation of the tripartite meeting will achieve some tangible results to protect the security in Northeast Asia after the drastic change in the security environment in the region, including from the deepening U.S.-China rivalry and the mounting nuclear threat from North Korea.

We also expect the three leaders to promise a joint effort to resolve the North Korean nuclear threat in today’s meeting. Given the North’s alleged “completion of both short-range and mid- to long-range ballistic missiles,” Japan and China are also not free from its nuclear threat. Under frozen inter-Korean relations, only China can keep the recalcitrant state in check.

Our government, in particular, must create an amicable atmosphere for President Yoon and Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet in the near future. Cooperation between the two leaders is undoubtedly as important to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula as tripartite cooperation.