▲ South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin (C) attends the ASEAN plus three foreign ministers' meeting in Jakarta, in this file photo taken July 13, 2023, along with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, Wang Yi (L) and Yoshimasa Hayashi, respectively. (Yonhap)

S Korea-China-Japan-talks

S. Korea, China, Japan eye high-level talks to arrange trilateral summit within year: sources

SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea, China and Japan have been in discussions over holding a high-level meeting in the near future to arrange a trilateral summit within the year, according to sources Wednesday.

The three countries' diplomatic authorities have been discussing a plan to hold a senior officials' meeting next month in South Korea, the current chair country of a tripartite consultative body, in order to resume their regular three-way summits within the year.

A Seoul foreign ministry official said on the condition of anonymity that South Korea was "coordinating with relevant nations" to resume discussions among the three countries' consultative body "with a goal to hold a trilateral summit within the year."

The three sides were reportedly envisioning that the senior officials' meeting would be led by deputy foreign minister-level officials.

Japan's Mainichi Shimbun also reported that the three sides were discussing holding a senior-level meeting in Seoul in late September.

Three-way summits among the regional neighbors, first held in December 2008, were suspended after the eighth gathering in December 2019 following a dispute between South Korea and Japan over forced labor compensation rulings and the pandemic.

Talks on the need to revive tripartite summit diplomacy have surfaced following a thawing of the frozen ties between Seoul and Japan since the launch of the current South Korean administration under President Yoon Suk Yeol in May of last year.

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