S.Korea, China, Japan hold first 3-way FM talks in 3 years

The top diplomats of South Korea, China and Japan held their first talks in almost three years on Saturday in a bid to restore trilateral cooperation amid strained relations over historical and territorial rows.

The meeting brought together South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Chinese and Japanese counterparts Wang Yi and Fumio Kishida. Historical and territorial rows have prevented them from getting together.

"We are here today to overcome such difficulties wisely ...I hope that today's talks could pave the way for restoring trilateral cooperation to move forward to the next step," Yun said at the start of the meeting.

The trilateral cooperation mechanism has been suspended as South Korea's and China's relations with Japan remain strained due to historical and territorial rows.

In November, South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressed her hope to meet with the Chinese and Japanese leaders following a meeting of their foreign ministers.

A meeting of the top diplomats could potentially lay the groundwork for a trilateral summit, which was last held in May 2012.

"I hope that an early resumption of a summit could come through today's meeting," Kishida said.

Relations between South Korea and Japan, and China and Japan have been frayed for years due mainly to Tokyo's attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities and colonial occupation. Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910-45 and controlled much of China in the early part of the 20th century.

South Korea and Japan have long been at odds over the issue of Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japan's World War II soldiers.

Meanwhile, China and Japan have been sparring over a territorial dispute involving islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

"I hope that the foreign ministers' meeting could serve as a chance to face up to history and to resolve the issue of the shared history properly in a future-oriented way," Wang said at the start of the meeting.

The trilateral meeting also came at a time when Seoul's diplomacy has been put to the test amid a mounting Washington-Beijing row over the possibility of an advanced U.S. missile defense system on Korean soil and a China-led Asian development bank.

South Korea is struggling to walk a diplomatic tightrope between the U.S., Seoul's key ally, and China, Seoul's largest trading partner, over the sensitive security issue.

Separately, Yun held bilateral meetings with Wang and Kishida, respectively, earlier in the day.

Wang did not bring up the controversial issue of Washington's possible deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system on Korean soil at the meeting with Yun, according to a Seoul official.

They also reaffirmed the stance of zero tolerance toward North Korea's nuclear weapons program, vowing for efforts to resume meaningful dialogue to denuclearize the North.

Seoul and Japan, meanwhile, agreed to make efforts for progress over ongoing bilateral talks on the former sex slaves.

Last April, Seoul and Tokyo launched talks on Japan's sex slavery, but no breakthrough has been made due largely to Japan's attitude. (Yonhap)