China, Japan, South Korea to hold first summit in three years

The South Korean foreign ministry asked the DPRK’s counterpart to participate in the multilateral forum, but there has been no response delivered from Pyongyang until Monday.

Top nuclear envoys for six-party talks to dismantle the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s nuclear program will gather in Seoul this week to discuss cooperation in Northeast Asian region, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Monday.

This is the first visit to South Korea by a Chinese premier in five years.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s office said she would meet Li on October 31 in Seoul.

President Park Geun-hye, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed a firm commitment to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue during recent bilateral summits. Li will be visiting Seoul also for first time since he assumed office in 2013.

According to China’s Ministry of Commerce data, the combined GDP of the three nations exceeds $16 trillion in total, accounting for more than 20 per cent of the world.

Ties with Japan have always been strained by what Seoul and Beijing see as Japanese leaders’ reluctance to atone for the country’s wartime past.

Hua called on relevant sides to properly handle history issue and other sensitive issues on the basis of the spirit of “face up to history, look to the future” so as to guarantee healthy and stable development of China-Japan-ROK cooperation. “We have full confidence in the cooperation with Japan and Korea and East Asia at large”.

The summit, held annually since 2008, was discontinued amid diplomatic tension between Japan and South Korea stemming both from the war and a territorial dispute.

Li is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Park on Saturday, and separate meetings with National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn.

The two currencies can now trade directly, cutting out the USA dollar.