The source explained that the meeting will be attended by his deputy vice-minister, Chung Byung-won; Japan’s first vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Takehiro Funakoshi; and China’s deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, Nong Rong.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lim Soo-suk said the three sides will discuss various issues related to their trilateral consultative body and review the status and future direction of cooperation between the three countries.

The meeting will also discuss matters related to a possible trilateral summit at a presidential level, which has been on hold since 2019.

The trilateral summit is under discussion with the objective of holding it within this year. The parties could hold a meeting of foreign ministers to coordinate the date of the meeting, the ministry added.

The trilateral summits between the regional neighbors, first held in December 2008, were suspended after the eighth meeting in December 2019, following a dispute between South Korea and Japan over a South Korean court’s rulings for compensation for wartime forced labor and the coronavirus pandemic.

Talks on the need to revive diplomacy between the three nations followed the unfreezing of strained ties between Seoul and Tokyo after the South Korean administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol took office in May last year.

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