Japanese and Chinese leaders Wednesday voiced support for the inter-Korean agreement in Panmunjom on April 27 for common goal towards denuclearization and permanent peace arrangement as regional stability and peace hinge on the results in their trilateral and two-way summit meetings with the South Korean president in Tokyo.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a trilateral summit in Tokyo on Wednesday and issued a special statement supporting the outcome of the inter-Korean talks on April 27.

“South Korea, China, and Japan are historical, geographically, and culturally closest neighbors, and also the most important partners jointly responsible for peace and prosperity in the Northeast Asian region,” said Moon.

The Wednesday’s meeting was first trilateral summit since November 2015. Seoul’s relationship with Beijing soured over the installment of a U.S. anti-missile system and with Tokyo over the liberal government’s revisit to the comfort women agreement reached with the previous Seoul administration.

Moon told Abe and Li that he was assured North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was committed to complete denuclearization after having honest talks with Kim during their meeting at the border village of Panmunjom. He also expressed his hope for North Korea to successfully engage in talks with international society, which would bring the peace beyond Korean peninsula to Northeast Asian region and the world.

Korea would continue to communicate and cooperate with China and Japan in the transition, said Moon.

In addition to issuing the special statement, the three leaders agreed to invigorate cooperative exchanges in the fields of public health and environmental protection by resolving fine dust problems and cooperating together in the events of natural disasters such as earthquakes. The three nations will jointly develop projects like liquefied natural gas and information and communication technology.

They will also actively engage in networking programs with an aim to have more than 30 million people from the three nations work together by 2020.

By Kang Gye-man and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]