Shanghai, September 28: Foreign ministers from China, Japan and South Korea were to meet in Shanghai Monday to discuss the North Korea nuclear issue and a Japanese proposal for a European Union-style East Asian community.
The ministers were also due to prepare for an October 10 summit in Beijing, likely to bring together Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, officials said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also will meet his Japanese and South Korean counterparts separately on Monday and Tuesday, ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.
Next month’s full three-way summit would be only the second ever, and would mark Hatoyama’s first visit to China since taking office earlier this month.
Leaders of the three nations held their first trilateral summit in December last year in Japan, when Taro Aso was the Japanese premier.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said topics to be discussed at the summit would include North Korea’s nuclear programme, as well as Hatoyama’s proposal for an East Asian free trade bloc.
Seoul’s push to host the next Group of 20 summit would also be on the agenda, the ministry said.
All three countries are parties — along with North Korea, Russia and the United States — to the stalled six-way talks aimed at Pyongyang’s nuclear disarmament.
Pyongyang quit the talks in April after the United Nations censured its long-range rocket test, and was further angered when the world body imposed tougher sanctions after its nuclear test in May.
But earlier this month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told a top Chinese envoy visiting Pyongyang that he was willing to engage in bilateral and multilateral talks on the nuclear issue.
Hatoyama made his global debut as Japan’s premier last week at the United Nations in New York, where he met Chinese President Hu Jintao and South Korea’s Lee.
—Agencies