Trilateral summit to discuss North Korea

SOUTH KOREA, China and Japan will hold a trilateral summit in Tokyo next week, in the latest round of diplomacy to resolve tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.

The meeting will bring together Moon Jae-in, the South’s president, Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, and Li Keqiang, the Chinese premier, for the first time in more than two years.

It follows a historic summit between Mr Moon and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un last Friday, where they pledged to pursue “complete denuclearisation” and a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War. South Korea asked the United Nations yesterday to help verify the planned nuclear shutdown, due to begin later this month.

On Sunday, Mr Moon’s office revealed that Kim would invite experts from South Korea and the US to the country to ensure “transparency” around the site’s dismantlement.

Yoon Young-chan, a presidential spokesman, said that Kim had no intention of targeting the US or the South with nuclear weapons, reported CNN. “There is no reason for us to possess nuclear weapons … if mutual trust with the United States is built through frequent meetings from now on … an end to the war and non-aggression are promised,” Kim was quoted as saying.