(3rd LD) FM Park says plans for trilateral summit with China, Japan to take form at ministers' talks

▲ Foreign Minister Park Jin speaks to reporters as he arrives at a hotel in Busan on Nov. 25, 2023, for trilateral talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa in the southeastern port city, set to take place the next day. (Yonhap)

▲ Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C) arrives at a hotel in Busan on Nov. 25, 2023, a day ahead of the trilateral talks with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in the southeastern port city. (Yonhap)

▲ Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa (C) gets out of a vehicle as she arrives at a hotel in Busan on Nov. 25, 2023, a day ahead of the trilateral talks with her South Korean and Chinese counterparts. (Yonhap)

(3rd LD) China-Japan-FMs-S Korea

(3rd LD) FM Park says plans for trilateral summit with China, Japan to take form at ministers' talks

(ATTN: UPDATES with Park's remarks in paras 2-6; RECASTS headline, lead)

By Kim Seung-yeon

SEOUL/BUSAN, Nov. 25 (Yonhap) -- Foreign Minister Park Jin said Saturday he expects the upcoming trilateral talks with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts will be a venue to help form the plans to resume the long-suspended summit of the three countries' leaders.

Park made the remarks ahead of the trilateral talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, set for Sunday, a gathering expected to focus on efforts to revive the summit that has remained stalled since late 2019.

"We are exchanging opinions with the Japanese and Chinese sides about the three-way summit, and I believe it will take some form through this meeting," Park told reporters in Busan.

"(Sunday's talks are) very meaningful in that it intends to restore the stalled trilateral cooperation and normalize it," Park said.

Park arrived in the southern port city, the venue for Sunday's talks, late Saturday, after returning from a trip to London and Paris, where he accompanied President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Park also said he plans to discuss ways for the three countries to cooperate after North Korea's launch of a military reconnaissance satellite earlier this week, including ways for China to play "a constructive role."

"We'll discuss everything that is necessary, especially things that the three countries can do to stop North Korea's provocations and bring the regime to denuclearize, including China's constructive role," Park said.

Wang and Kamikawa arrived in Busan earlier in the day.

On Sunday, Park will hold separate bilateral talks with Kamikawa and Wang, respectively, before having the three-way talks later in the day.

Park will invite the two ministers to a luncheon meeting between the bilateral and trilateral talks.

During the two-day trip, neither of the two ministers is expected to pay a courtesy call on President Yoon Suk Yeol due to scheduling matters.

Sunday's talks will likely discuss efforts to facilitate the resumption of the trilateral summit among the leaders, which has not taken place since December 2019.

The trilateral summit was last held in China's southwestern city of Chengdu and has not taken place due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and a deterioration in bilateral relations between Seoul and Tokyo over a longstanding issue of compensating Korean forced labor victims when Korea was a Japanese colony in 1910-45.

Talks of reviving the summit gathered momentum amid a dramatic warming of the Seoul-Tokyo relations after South Korea said in March it will compensate the Korean victims on its own without asking for contributions from Japanese companies.

As the current rotating chair, Seoul has been pushing to host the summit before the end of this year.

North Korea's launch of a military reconnaissance satellite earlier this week and its growing military ties with Russia are also expected to be among the key agenda items at Sunday's talks.

They are also likely to discuss ways to promote three-way cooperation in such areas as climate change, science and digital technologies, and people-to-people exchanges.

It marks the first visit by Kamikawa since she took office in September. Wang last visited South Korea in September 2021.

(END)

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