South Korea offers Japan long-awaited leadership summit

In her first China visit in June 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with her twice in two days.

Li’s landmark visit, his first as premier, to South Korea from October. 31 to November 2 is at the invitation of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced Monday in Beijing. The two countries will sign bilateral agreements on economic cooperation, trade, education, technology and environmental protection, Liu said.

Japan, China and South Korea ended their 8th FTA negotiation round on a trilateral trade agreement without much headway last month.

China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) are set to hold a first trilateral leaders’ meeting in three years, ending a period of diplomatic deadlock due to heightened regional tensions.

China hopes the meeting will enhance China-Japan-ROK cooperation in both traditional and new fields, Hua said.

They will hold a joint press conference and attend a trilateral business summit, Liu said.

Meanwhile on Monday, the online Japanese edition of the Chosun Ilbo, a major South Korean newspaper, reported that the Park-Abe meeting is likely to avoid historical issues and instead focus on topics such as North Korea’s nuclear weapon development and the scope of operations the Self-Defense Forces may undertake in the event of a crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

President Park Geun-hye is set to host the leaders of China and Japan in what could be the resumption of a trilateral summit among the three neighbours in three years, Yonhap News Agency quoted the official as saying. Many communication mechanisms between China and Japan have halted, and bilateral trade and investment has slumped. Although it is important for Japan to properly handle its bilateral ties with China and South Korea, the Japanese government should attach greater importance to the three-way summit talks with China and South Korea. Their combined gross domestic product accounts for 21 percent of the world’s overall GDP, just below that of the United States and more than six times larger than the combined share of the 10 ASEAN countries. In regard to historical perception in his war anniversary statement, Abe had to be extremely careful not to split Japanese society in two, even if he wanted to find a few solution that might be acceptable to the Chinese and Koreans. However, we have seen few media articles about trilateral cooperation since Japan’s relations with China and South Korea worsened in 2012.

Both China and South Korea have claimed that Japan has failed to atone for wartime atrocities committed in occupied Asia before and during the war.