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ROK, China, Japan to discuss DPRK issue

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-24 13:58

SEOUL: The annual trilateral meeting gathering foreign ministers of the Repulic of Korea (ROK), China and Japan will touch upon the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s issues and discuss possibility of creating a regional community, ROK officials said on Thursday.

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The ROK's Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan will travel to Shanghai to meet with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi and Japan's newly named Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada at the third annual trilateral ministerial meeting in Shanghai on Monday, according to South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

During the meeting, the three ministers also plan to discuss details for an upcoming summit of their nation's leaders, which is expected to be held in early October in China, a foreign ministry official told Yonhap News Agency.

"The annual meeting of South Korean, Chinese, and Japanese foreign ministers is intended to discuss a broad range of regional and global issues. Therefore, the North Korean (DPRK) issue will be high on agenda," the official said.  

Ministers will also talk about the ROK's push to host the next G20 financial summit and a plan to set up an EU-style regional community -- the East Asian Community (EAC) that would include Japan, China, the ROK and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the official said.

He said the broad discussions are expected to give better understanding to their leaders before their summit in October.  

The three-way ministerial talks were launched in 2007. The first meeting was held in Jeju, the ROK, and the second took place in Tokyo in 2008.