By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
The foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan will gather in Tokyo on June 14 to discuss ways to advance the stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs and other issues of concern, officials said Monday.
``Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo agreed to hold a meeting of foreign ministers in Tokyo to exchange views on the prospects of the six-party negotiations,'' an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. ``They will also discuss ways to help earthquake victims in China and support China's successful hosting of the upcoming Beijing Olympics.''
In the latest meeting of foreign ministers in Singapore last November, the three countries agreed to set up an online communication channel for working-level officials to facilitate discussions on pending regional issues.
``The Tokyo meeting is quite significant as it comes on the heels of President Lee Myung-bak's summits with Chinese and Japanese leaders,'' the spokesman said. ``Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan will engage in closed-door discussions with his counterparts to seek ways to boost cooperation on issues, such as the North's nuclear program.''
In the lead-up to the gathering of ministers in Tokyo, South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kwon Jong-rak will hold a strategic dialogue with his Japanese counterpart, Mitoji Yabunaka, to set the agenda for the planned talks.
``During the vice ministerial meeting, scheduled for June 5 in Tokyo, Seoul will take issue with Tokyo's alleged plan to describe Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo as part of its territory,'' said Moon Tae-young, a ministry spokesman. ``There is no change in our stance that Dokdo can't be subject to a territorial dispute. We will deliver this message to Japan.''
On May 16, Minister Yu called in Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Toshinori Shigeie to deliver a message of protest over a media report that Japan's Education Ministry plans to refer to Dokdo as Japanese territory in its revised curriculum handbook for teachers and textbook publishers.
The report came three months after Japan's Foreign Ministry posted a document on its official Web site, laying claim to the islets in the East Sea.