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| President Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with Chinese Premier Li Qiang during their meeting at Jakarta Convention Center in Indonesia, Thursday (local time). Yonhap |
Worsening NK issue will only boost trilateral cooperation between S. Korea, US, Japan
By Nam Hyun-woo
JAKARTA ― President Yoon Suk Yeol told China, Thursday, that North Korea's escalating nuclear and missile threats will only strengthen the coupling of South Korea, the United States and Japan, and asked Beijing to play its role to prevent the issue from hindering relations with Seoul.
Yoon made those comments during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summits in Jakarta, Indonesia.
"North Korea's nuclear threat is a matter both of us face," Yoon said during the meeting.
"If North Korea's nuclear issue is not addressed, there is no other option but to strengthen cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan. China should play its role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and let us cooperate to prevent North Korea from becoming an obstacle in our relations."
The 51-minute meeting was kept under wraps until the last minute. It was Yoon's first meeting with high-level Chinese officials after South Korea, the U.S. and Japan upgraded the level of their cooperation to a quasi-alliance during a trilateral summit at Camp David on Aug. 18.
During the meeting, Yoon said he hopes to see more proactive exchanges between high-level officials of the two countries and asked for China's cooperation to enable a trilateral summit between South Korea, Japan and China to take place in South Korea as early as possible.
Li said that China will "actively respond" to the suggestion of holding a trilateral summit and added that the two countries should seek "mature relations based on trust," while keeping friendly relations, pursue common interests and understand each other's interests, according to an official at the presidential office.
While pursuing trilateral cooperation with the U.S. and Japan, Yoon has also been seeking to resume the trilateral summit with Japan and China within this year, to manage Seoul's relations with Beijing.
A senior official at the presidential office said that there was no agreement on whether the South Korea-Japan-China summit will take place this year, but added, "There has been a sufficient amount of communication between South Korea and China."
On the economic front, Li proposed that the two countries should accelerate the second round of negotiations for a free trade agreement. In response, Yoon said, "The two countries will be able to maintain predictable economic and investment activities if they can manage their bilateral relations while adhering to rules within frameworks that the international community has been abiding by."
The meeting gained greater attention as it came right after Yoon stressed the importance of Seoul-Washington-Tokyo ties during the ASEAN summits, which was seen as an attempt to counterbalance strengthening relations between North Korea, China and Russia.
Li did not mention the strengthening ties between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo during the meeting, according to the senior official. "Recently, economic discussions between South Korea and China have resumed and high-level diplomatic meetings are showing signs of resuming, so we had an impression that China is refraining from speaking about the Camp David summit," the official said.
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