Korea, China, Japan negotiating to convene long-awaited foreign ministers' meeting

Should the foreign ministers meet, it would be the first meeting of its kind since December 2019, when it was held in Chengdu, China.

Korean Ambassador to China Chung Jae-ho in August 2023. [YONHAP]

The Korean government is currently negotiating with Chinese and Japanese counterparts to convene the first foreign ministers’ meeting in four years.

The meeting will likely be held in Busan later this month.

Korean Ambassador to China Chung Jae-ho on Monday said that while negotiations among the three neighboring countries are not easy, all three nations are willing to hold the meeting.

The meeting was initially agreed upon by the countries' deputy foreign ministers — Chung Byung-won of Korea, Takehiro Funakoshi of Japan and Nong Rong of China — during the trilateral senior officials’ meeting (SOM) held in Seoul in September.

Should the foreign ministers meet, it would be the first meeting of its kind since December 2019, when it was held in Chengdu, China.

BY LEE SU-MIN [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]