By Jung Sung-ki
Staff reporter
The foreign ministers from South Korea, Japan and China met Saturday in Gyeongju for talks on a host of bilateral and regional issues.
The March 26 sinking of South Korean corvette Cheonan in the West Sea (Yellow Sea) was a key topic for the meeting, as a multinational investigation team has been struggling to find convincing evidence on what caused the incident.
South Korea is increasingly pointing to North Korea as the culprit behind the disaster that claimed the lives of 46 sailors.
According to Kim Young-sun, spokesman for South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was short of pointing to North Korea and instead called for a ``scientific and objective investigation.''
Some pundits say Yang's remark is construed as China's moderate stance not to point the finger at North Korea without undeniable proof.
Seoul officials say China's stance would play a pivotal role in resolving the Cheonan row given it is North Korea's closet ally and serves as one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC).
The Lee Myung-bak administration wants to bring the Cheonan issue to the UNSC after concluding the investigation, even if there is no ``smoking gun,'' but without it, experts expect China to veto the move.
Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada expressed a more active support for South Korea's investigation.
``Japan renewed its condolences over the incident and praised the Seoul government's objective and scientific investigation,'' Kim said after Sunday's bilateral meeting. ``The two ministers agreed to closely work together in dealing with the incident following the investigation.''
The three ministers discussed strengthening tripartite cooperation, preparation for the May 29-30 summit of the three nations on South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju, and other regional and global issues, according to a joint statement.
The three nations operate more than 50 government-to-government consultative channels, including 17 minister-level ones, and cooperate on about 100 programs concerning politics, economy, culture, exchanges of human resources and disaster relief, it said.
As part of efforts to facilitate tripartite cooperation, the neighboring nations are considering the establishment of a permanent secretariat for cooperation in South Korea, said the statement.