SEOUL -- Japan, South Korea and China held their first joint summit in over four years on Monday, seeking deeper commercial ties to bolster their economies, including by aiming for progress in stalled negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA), but with Seoul and Tokyo also using the occasion to criticize North Korea over a planned satellite launch.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hosted Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul. None of the three were in office for the last three-way gathering in December 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, in Chengdu, China.
