The Guardian-China Japan and South Korea amid regional rivalries line up leaders summit
November 27, 2023 3 min 589 words
这篇报道描绘了中国、日本和韩国外长在釜山的三边会晤，试图缓解由朝鲜武器计划和美军更加显著存在引发的地区紧张局势。这次会晤意在为时已有四年的领导人峰会奠定基础，以加强在安全等关键领域的合作。值得关注的是，会晤的背后是中日韩对美国联盟和朝鲜敌对态度的紧张关系。 这一举措出现在中美两国领导人在Apec峰会期间会晤之后，旨在缓解中国对日韩美安全合作加强的担忧。尽管预计不会在今年内举行，但中国主席习近平、韩国总统尹锡悦和日本首相岸川文男的峰会预计将在不久的将来实现。 文章指出，此次会晤也讨论了朝鲜的问题，尤其是在平壤成功将一颗携带违禁弹道导弹技术的间谍卫星送入轨道之后。此外，南韩高等法院上周要求日本赔偿16名二战期间被迫在日本军队妓院工作的妇女，引起了历史问题的阴影。 在这个背景下，三国外长呼吁对意识形态划界持反对态度，强调抵制将地区合作分为阵营。然而，历史遗留问题和领土争端仍然是阻碍这一地区合作的关键因素。总体而言，这次峰会的召开是为了维护地区稳定，但要解决深层次的问题仍需付出更多努力。
The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea will meet, possibly next year, in the latest attempt to ease regional tensions heightened by North Korea’s weapons programme and a more visible US military presence.
During a meeting in the South Korean port city of Busan on Sunday, the three Asian countries’ foreign ministers agreed to step up cooperation in key areas, including security, and to lay the groundwork for what would be the first leaders’ summit in four years.
The weekend’s trilateral meeting – the first between the neighbours’ foreign ministers since 2019 – came soon after the Chinese and US presidents, Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, met on the sidelines of the Apec summit in California.
The Asia summit – preparations for which began in September during talks between the countries’ deputy foreign ministers – is in part designed to address Chinese concerns over closer security ties between Japan, South Korea and the US.
While not expected to take place this year, the meeting between Xi of China, the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, and the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, is expected “in the near future”, according to South Korea’s national security adviser, Cho Tae-yong.
“The three ministers reaffirmed … to hold the summit, the pinnacle of the trilateral cooperation system, at the earliest, mutually convenient time,” South Korea’s foreign minister, Park Jin, told reporters. “We agreed to expedite the necessary preparations.”
In comments clearly aimed at security cooperation between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington, the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, urged the three countries to “oppose ideological demarcation and resist putting regional cooperation into camps”.
North Korea was also on the agenda during Sunday’s 100-minute meeting, a few days after Pyongyang successfully put a spy satellite incorporating banned ballistic missile technology into orbit, in its latest show of defiance against UN-led sanctions targeting its nuclear and missile programmes.
Kamikawa and Jin condemned the launch and agreed to strengthen their response to recent deals to supply North Korean munitions to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine. Park reportedly asked for China to play a “constructive” role in encouraging Pyongyang to denuclearise.
China is North Korea’s main ally and biggest aid donor, but few believe Beijing has the diplomatic clout to convince the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to abandon his nuclear ambitions.
The region’s wartime legacy cast a shadow over this weekend’s talks, however, following a South Korean high court ruling last week demanding that Japan compensate 16 women who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels before and during the second world war.
Kamikawa described the ruling as “extremely regrettable” and requested that Seoul take measures to correct the “violation of international law”.
Historians say tens of thousands of “comfort women” were coerced into working in the brothels during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. Japan insists that all compensation claims relating to that period were settled when the countries normalised bilateral ties in 1965.
China, South Korea and Japan – which together account for about a quarter of global GDP – agreed to hold annual summits from 2008, but the meetings were derailed by historical and territorial disagreements, and the Covid-19 pandemic.