South Korea, Japan, China Agree to Hold Summit at ‘Earliest Convenient Time’

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin welcomes Senior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Takehiro Funakoshi, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Nong Rong and Deputy Minister for Political Affairs of the South Korean foreign ministry Jung Byung-won before their meeting ahead of South Korea, China, and Japan trilateral meeting at the foreign ministry in Seoul, South Korea, on Sept. 25, 2023. Kim Min-Hee/Pool via Reuters

SEOUL—Senior diplomats from South Korea, China, and Japan agreed on Tuesday that their countries’ leaders would meet at the “earliest convenient time”, Seoul’s foreign ministry said after a rare meeting aimed at kickstarting trilateral exchanges.

The three countries had agreed to hold a summit every year starting in 2008 to foster regional cooperation, but that initiative has been frayed by bilateral feuds and the COVID-19 pandemic. The last summit was in 2019.