South Korea, China, Japan hold first trilateral talks in 18 months

Senior diplomats from South Korea, China and Japan held the first trilateral talks in 18 months on Thursday to mend frosty ties caused by Japan's territorial disputes with neighboring countries and its anachronistic historical perception. South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Kyung-soo, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin and Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama met in Seoul to discuss trilateral cooperation through the diplomatic channel that has been halted since May 2012. No talks among the three Asian powers were held since the trilateral summit and ministerial-level dialogues were held in Beijing in May and April of 2012 respectively. South Korea, the host country of the three-nation dialogue for 2013, pushed the trilateral summit in May, but the talks among the heads of state had yet to be held amid diplomatic row between Japan and South Korea as well as between Japan and China. Tokyo has repeatedly made claims of its sovereignty over a chain of islets known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, bringing harsh backlash from Seoul. Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing escalated due to a territorial dispute surrounding the Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea. Seoul and Beijing slammed Tokyo with one voice for recent trips to the controversial war-linked Yasukuni shrine by members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet as well as hundreds of lawmakers. Seoul's Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young ruled out a summit between the three nations within this year, saying that no schedule was decided for the summit and ministerial talks. "No trilateral summit and foreign minister talks are scheduled now. Preparing for the summit and minister talks is the main goal of the ongoing Korea-Japan-China senior-level talks, but discussion on this is not expected to be treated big as there was no schedule (for the three-nation summit and minister talks)," Cho said at a press briefing relayed by Yonhap news agency today.