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| China-Japan-Koreas | |
| S. Korea, Japan, China to discuss N. Korea | |
| 2010-05-30 | |
| JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, May 30 (Yonhap) -- The leaders of South Korea, Japan and China will concentrate their talks Sunday on regional security, including the North Korean nuclear crisis and its purported sinking of a South Korean warship in March, officials said. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have gathered here for an annual summit among the regional powers. Wen will apparently face renewed pressure to join in blaming the North for its latest naval attack on the South. "Major regional and global security issues will be a main agenda item" in the second-day session of their summit, one of Lee's aides said. They said the president will raise the Cheonan issue during the session. The three-way summit is originally intended to explore ways to boost regional cooperation among the Northeast Asian neighbors, which regard the European Union as a role model. This year's event, however, has been overshadowed by the Cheonan incident. Although the three nations have stepped up efforts to expand economic ties and other exchanges toward establishing a stronger Northeast Asian community, they do not share a common view when it comes to the region's security landscape. South Korea and Japan push for tough penalties against Pyongyang for its provocations but China cares more about stability. Beijing is concerned about the possibility of a massive inflow of North Korean defectors and a weakening of its influence in the region in case of political instability in the communist regime, experts say. In that sense, Wen's three-day trip to South Korea, the first top-level visit by a Chinese official since the South formally pointed its fingers at the North for the unprovoked attack, has drawn keen attention especially as Seoul prepares to bring the case to the U.N. Security Council. In a series of meetings with the South Korean president and other senior officials, Wen reiterated that Beijing will decide its position impartially. Wen is expected to maintain such a prudent position in a joint press conference later Sunday, which will be used to recap the results of his summit with Lee and Hatoyama.
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| Posted by:Steve White |