The leaders of South Korea and Japan sought Monday to restore economic cooperation with China, their largest trading partner, after years of soured relations, but their three-way talks were overshadowed by heightened tensions between China and the United States, Seoul and Tokyo's top trading partners. important military ally.
The trilateral meeting – with President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and Premier Li Qiang, China's second-highest official – was the first in four and a half years.
The talks focused on areas where common ground could more easily be found, such as protecting supply chains, promoting trade and working together to tackle the challenges of an aging population and emerging infectious diseases. The leaders sidestepped thorny regional security issues such as Taiwan and North Korea.
“The three countries agreed to expand practical cooperation in a way that their peoples can feel its benefits,” Mr. Yoon said at a joint press conference with Mr. Kishida and Mr. Li, announcing 2025 and 2026 as the 'years of cultural exchanges'. between the three nations.
But hours before the meeting, North Korea helped highlight the stark differences between the three neighbors. Pyongyang said it would launch a long-range missile within nine days military spy satellite into space. The country is barred by United Nations Security Council resolutions from launching such missiles because they use the same technology needed to build intercontinental ballistic missiles.
North Korea's increasingly aggressive military posture has heightened concerns in South Korea and Japan. The North has also expanded arms trade with Russia in defiance of U.N. sanctions, shipping artillery shells and missiles for Moscow's war effort in Ukraine, U.S. and South Korean officials said. In return, Moscow is accused of providing energy and technological assistance that could help North Korea's missile program.
South Korea and Japan have called on China, North Korea's biggest benefactor, to use its economic influence to help curb Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. So far, Beijing has been reluctant to use this force because North Korea is seen as a buffer against the US military on the Korean Peninsula.
On Monday, both Mr Yoon and Mr Kishida strongly criticized North Korea's satellite launch plan. But Mr. Li, who serves under Xi Jinping, China's top leader, did not denounce North Korea, merely calling on all sides to “exercise restraint” and work toward a “political settlement.”
As the press conference in Seoul was wrapping up, 20 South Korean warplanes carried out an airstrike south of the inter-Korean border, warning of “immediate and strong” retaliation against the North Korean provocation.
China, Japan and South Korea had agreed to hold a trilateral meeting every year from 2008 to discuss regional cooperation. But the plan has often been disrupted by diplomatic rows and most recently by the pandemic. The meeting held in Seoul on Monday was the ninth such meeting and the first since December 2019.
During the years-long rift, strategic competition between Washington and Beijing has intensified, also deteriorating relations between China and the United States' two allies. China has pooled its military power and expanded its territorial ambitions in the South and East China Seas, while the United States, Japan and South Korea have stepped up joint military exercises and strengthened missile defense and other security cooperation.
China's ties with the two U.S. allies have become so fractious in recent years that analysts noted that simply reviving the trilateral summit was an achievement. But common interests forced Beijing and its two neighbors to revive the country.
Mr Yoon said on Monday that the three countries agreed to hold regular summits.
East Asian neighbors, which together account for more than a fifth of global economic output, need regional stability and cooperation, especially in supply chains, to recover from their post-pandemic economic slowdown. Although Japan and South Korea consider the United States their most important ally, which together host 80,000 U.S. troops on their soil, their leaders have faced pressure at home from companies vying to improve access to China.
China is betting it can woo Japan and South Korea by offering greater access to its market and reducing some of Washington's influence. To this end, China has agreed to resume talks on a free trade agreement between the three neighbors, emphasizing greater economic cooperation as a means to maintain regional peace and stability.
It has portrayed the United States as a meddling party in Asian affairs, pressuring Japan and South Korea to form a bloc to control Chinese development. Washington has imposed a wall of restrictions to deny Beijing access to the latest semiconductors, urging allies such as Japan and South Korea to work together.
On Monday, Mr Li indirectly criticized Washington by calling for a “multipolar” world order and opposing any attempt to create “blocs” and “politicize” trade issues.
In recent years, Japan and South Korea have grown closer. improve relationships that have long been strained by historical disputes. They have also expanded trilateral military cooperation with the United States to deter North Korea and China.
Japan and South Korea urged China to address growing difficulties in doing business in China. Mr Kishida called for the early release of Japanese citizens arrested in China on suspicion of espionage.
During bilateral talks on Sunday, South Korea and China agreed to launch new channels to discuss security issues and cooperation in supply chains, said Kim Tae-hyo, deputy director of national security in Mr. Yoon's office.
Mr. Yoon's policy of aligning South Korea more closely with the United States overlaps a sharp decline in South Korean exports to China. The United States this year replace China South Korea is South Korea's largest export market for the first time in two decades, according to government data.
David Pierson reporting contributed.