Korea, Japan, China hold regular talks in Beijing

Senior diplomats from Korea, Japan and China held regular three-way talks in Beijing and discussed a wide range of regional issues, Seoul's foreign ministry said Monday.

The one-day talks are also partly aimed at arranging agenda items and protocol, as the three neighboring nations are preparing to hold a summit of their top leaders, set to be held in the Chinese capital during the first half of this year, the ministry said in a statement.

During the talks, South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jae-shin and his Japanese and Chinese counterparts "exchanged in-depth views on major regional issues including North Korea-related issues and regional cooperation in East Asia," the statement said.

The tripartite meeting came as South Korea has urged China not to repatriate North Korean defectors held in China to their homeland where they face severe punishment and even death.

A Seoul official said that Kim met his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the three-way meeting and raised the issue again.

The issue has drawn fresh media and public attention as China, which regards North Korean defectors as economic migrants, not as refugees, is reportedly moving to return dozens of detained North Korean escapees to their homeland.

The Korea-Japan-China Senior Foreign Officials's Meeting is a major consultative channel among the three nations since 2007.

Meanwhile in Seoul, Second Vice Foreign Minister Kim Sung-han criticized the National Assembly for delaying a passage of a bill designed to help improve North Korea's dismal human rights situation.

The bill has been stuck in limbo for years in the South Korean parliament, a sign that Seoul is divided over how to deal with its communist neighbor.

"It's ironic and shameful that the National Assembly has failed to approve the human rights bill on North Korea for more than three years," Kim told reporters.

North Korea has long been accused of human rights abuses, ranging from holding hundreds of thousands of political prisoners to torture and public executions. Pyongyang denies the accusations, calling them a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime.(Yonhap)