‘Restart of Korea-China-Japan Summit’ High-Level Meeting to be Held in Seoul on the 26th

The Significance of the Full-Scale Start of 'Trilateral Cooperation Restoration'

The high-level meeting (SOM) to discuss the resumption of the Korea-China-Japan trilateral summit will be held in Seoul on the 26th. This marks the first step toward restarting the trilateral summit, which has been suspended for 3 years and 8 months since December 2019. It holds great significance in restoring trilateral cooperation that had cooled due to COVID-19.

Lim Soo-seok, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated at the regular briefing on the 19th, “The high-level meeting will focus on various matters related to the promotion of the trilateral consultative body, the current status of cooperation among the three governments, and the direction of future efforts.”

The Korea-China-Japan summit began in December 2008 when then-President Lee Myung-bak of Korea met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in Fukuoka, Japan, and has been held a total of eight times. However, it has not been held since the summit in Chengdu, China, in December 2019. While the COVID-19 pandemic was a factor, the deepening conflict between Korea and Japan over the forced labor compensation ruling led Japan to take a passive stance toward promoting the trilateral summit.

President Moon Jae-in, Japanese Prime Minister Abe, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang are taking a commemorative photo ahead of the trilateral summit at the Century City International Conference Center in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, in December 2019. (Photo by Yonhap News)

This meeting is of a consultative nature aimed at resuming the trilateral meetings, with participation from deputy minister-level senior officials. The meeting will be chaired by Jung Byung-won, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. From Japan, Takehiro Funakoshi, Director-General for Foreign Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and from China, Nong Rong, Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will participate.

On the 25th, the day before the trilateral high-level meeting, a deputy director-general-level meeting among the three countries is also scheduled to be held. This meeting signifies that the three countries are seriously preparing to resume the Korea-China-Japan summit, which has not been held since the last summit in Chengdu, China, in December 2019.

An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters on the day, “We plan to discuss all matters related to the trilateral summit,” adding, “We are negotiating to hold the trilateral summit within this year, and before coordinating the date of the summit, there is a high possibility that a meeting among foreign ministers will also be discussed.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.