Japan, China, and South Korea agree to promote peace and cooperation

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left), Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (center) and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul pose for the cameras during a trilateral meeting in Tokyo on Saturday. | POOL

by NATSUKO FUKUE AND KATIE FORSTER
March 22, 2025

Japan, South Korea and China agreed Saturday that peace on the Korean Peninsula was a shared responsibility, Seoul's foreign minister said, in a meeting of the three countries' top diplomats in Tokyo in which they pledged to promote cooperation.

The talks followed a rare trilateral summit in May in Seoul where the neighbors — riven by historical and territorial disputes — agreed to deepen ties and restated their goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

But they come as U.S. trade tariffs loom over the region, and as concerns mount over North Korea's weapons tests and its deployment of troops to support Russia's war against Ukraine.