S. Korean and Japanese foreign ministers to hold bilateral meeting in Beijing

Reuters report quotes official from Japanese Foreign Ministry regarding upcoming meeting

South Korea and Japan’s foreign ministers are planning to hold a bilateral meeting in Beijing on Aug. 21, according to a Reuters report.

An Aug. 19 report quoted an official from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs who spoke on condition of anonymity as saying that Kang Kyung-wha and Taro Kono would be sitting down together in Beijing.

South Korea and Japan’s foreign ministries had announced on Aug. 16 that Kang and Kono would be joining Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for the ninth time in a series of regular meetings between their top diplomats, which is scheduled to be held in Beijing on Aug. 20-22.

Aug. 21, the day that Reuters said Kang and Kono will be holding their bilateral meeting, is the same day that the trilateral meeting will be taking place.

The agenda of the trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting, which returns after a hiatus of three years, is expected to focus on the question of a trilateral summit that’s supposed to be held this year in China, the country that’s currently chairing the event. The three countries are also working to arrange bilateral meetings between their respective diplomats on the sidelines of the main event.

Given the recent downturn in South Korea-Japan relations, the possibility of a one-on-one meeting between Kang and Kono has attracted particular attention. This meeting would also be held shortly before the deadline for South Korea to decide whether to extend an information-sharing agreement with Japan, known as the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), on Aug. 24, and the date when Japan’s planned removal of South Korea from its white list of trusted trading partners will take effect, on Aug. 28.

On Aug. 16, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry announced that it was “coordinating” the question of holding bilateral meetings with China and Japan, while Japan’s Foreign Ministry also said that “arrangements were being made for Kono to take this opportunity to have talks with the Chinese and South Korean foreign ministers.”

But even if Kang and Kono do meet, it won’t be easy for them to reach a common understanding about the issues that divide the two countries, including Japan’s export controls on South Korea and Koreans drafted for forced labor during the Japanese colonial occupation.

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

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