April 3, 2010

Deputy foreign ministers from South Korea, Japan and China met on South Korea’s Jeju Island to work out details for their annual three-way summit, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Saturday. A meeting between South Korea’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Lee Yong-joon, and his counterparts from Japan and China was held on April 2 on the southern resort island, expected also to be the site for the three-way summit likely to take place in May.

Among issues reportedly discussed included the continual efforts to bring North Korea back to the Six-Party Talks (which include both Koreas, the United States, Japan, China, and Russia), other regional and international concerns, and further promoting three-way cooperation. The upcoming South Korea-Japan-China summit is the third to be held by leaders of these Northeast Asian countries. The summit will be chaired by South Korea as the host.

Five rounds of Six Party Talks were held from 2003 to 2007, which produced little net progress until the February 2007, when North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear facilities in exchange for fuel aid and steps towards the normalization of relations with the U.S. and Japan. Responding angrily to the UN Security Council’s unanimous decision to condemn North Korea over its failed satellite launch in April 2009, North Korea declared it would pull out of the talks for good and would resume its nuclear enrichment program. In May 2009, North Korea then detonated a second underground nuclear device, an action condemned by the United Nations, the other five members of the Six-Party Talks, and many other countries worldwide.