China, ROK, Japan agree to properly handle historical issues

SEOUL - Visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here Sunday that China, South Korea and Japan agreed to properly handle historical and sensitive issues lingering among the three neighbors.

Li made the remarks at a joint press conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after the first China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting following a three-and-a-half-year hiatus.

China, South Korea and Japan should stick to the policy of facing up to history and looking forward to the future, so as to better develop trilateral cooperation and bilateral ties, he said.

He voiced his hope that the trilateral cooperation will be free from disturbances.

The trilateral summit, which came into being in 2008, was suspended in 2012 due to Japan's policy of historical revisionism over its wartime past and such right-leaning politics, therefore, prompted anger from China and South Korea, both of them suffered the most under Japan's wartime barbarities.

Li called on the three countries to make commitment to the world in the 70th anniversary of the victory of the anti-fascist war to firmly advance trilateral cooperation, so as to contribute to regional peace and stability.

To achieve this goal, he urged the three sides to keep a firm grasp on the general direction of their relations, so as to push forward their cooperation and allow their just-resumed trilateral summitry to proceed regularly.

Park said that as this year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and 50th anniversary of the normalization of South Korea-Japan relations, the resumption of the trilateral summit in such a significant year was a major step toward peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

She said she hoped that the trilateral summit could serve as a catalyzer for enhancing trilateral cooperation and exchanges and improving relations among the three sides.

For his part, Abe said his country will host the next China-Japan-South Korea summit next year and will use the outcome of the latest meeting as the starting point.