SKorea, Japan, China try to be better neighbours

Seogwipo (South Korea), June 3: The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China met today to try to smooth often prickly ties and help resolve the impasse over the nuclear weapons plans of their neighbour, North Korea.

The three major Asian countries have been unable to forge the kind of alliance that reflects their combined economic strength and strategic importance, while Tokyo looks increasingly towards the United States and Australia for security balance against China's growing military might, analysts say.

''The three countries take up 17 per cent of the world's GDP, and I think the role that Japan, China and South Korea can play is tremendous,'' Japanese Foreign Minister Aso Taro said at the opening of the three-way meeting.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon is hosting Japan's Aso and China's Yang Jiechi on the scenic southern tip of the resort island of Cheju.

Song and Yang travel to Seoul on Monday to join ministers from 27 other countries for the annual Asia Cooperation Dialogue meeting.

Aso returns to Tokyo and his deputy will take his place.

South Korean officials said ahead of the talks the new forum would skirt the toughest subjects, largely rooted in the years during the first half of the 20th century when China and South Korea were under Japanese military domination.

''We won't be discussing issues that are difficult for us to reach consensus on, issues that are going to put the others in an awkward position at this early stage,'' South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Shim Yoon-joe told reporters.

Japanese leaders' visits to a Tokyo shrine where convicted World War Two criminals are among the war dead honoured have angered South Korea and China, who see them as evidence of Japan's failure to properly reconcile with its militarist past.

The ministers were unlikely to touch on the history dispute, Shim said. They would discuss such less controversial issues as joint cultural festivals and the possibility of setting up shuttle flights between Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai, he said.

Also high on the agenda would be an international attempt to convince North Korea to begin shutting down its nuclear reactor, as it had pledged in a Feb. 13 deal with the three Asian countries along with the United States and Russia, Shim said.

Pyongyang says it will only move on the pledge once 25 million dollar of its funds are transferred out of a Macau bank. North Korea blames US intransigence for the hold-up.

Analysts say Pyongyang's chief concern is that the funds are released in such a way as to allow it to rejoin the international banking system, from which the reclusive state is currently largely excluded.

Reuters>