South Korea, China and Japan will hold a summit next week in Tokyo as part of ongoing diplomatic efforts on North Korea.
It follows a historic summit between the South’s Moon Jae In and the North's leader Kim Jong Un last Friday. They vowed to pursue denuclearization and a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, setting the mood for Kim's much-anticipated face-to-face encounter with US President Donald Trump.
Next week’s gathering on May 9 will bring together Moon, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, in the neighbors’ first such meeting for more than two years.
The three Asian countries have been holding regular trilateral summits since late 2008. Next week's summit, the seventh, comes amid a flurry of high-profile diplomatic contacts aimed at ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons.
All three of the neighbors are deeply involved with North Korea -- the South as its neighbor, key US ally Japan as a sometime target for its threats and China as its key diplomatic backer and business partner.
"We want to confirm cooperation with President Moon ahead of a summit between the US and North Korea," Abe said during a visit to the Jordanian capital Amman, describing the upcoming summit as "very significant".
"I want to thoroughly discuss how we can have North Korea walk on a right path, resolve the abduction, missile and nuclear issues and create a bright future," he added, referring to the North's abduction of Japanese in previous decades to train as spies.
Friday's summit, in which Kim and Moon exchanged smiles, handshakes and warm words in front of the world's cameras, was a marked contrast to the tensions of last year.
The North staged its most powerful nuclear test to date and launched missiles capable of reaching the US mainland as Kim and Trump traded threats of war and personal insults, sparking global security fears.
Japan has long maintained a hardline position on negotiations with Pyongyang but has found itself left on the sidelines.
With concerning growing in Tokyo over whether it should change tack, a hawkish Abe expressed a willingness to meet Kim -- a message which Moon relayed to the North's leader during the summit.
Kim said in response he was "willing to talk to Japan any time", Moon's office said on Sunday, adding the South's leader would be "happy to build a bridge" between the two nations.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying confirmed that Li will attend the trilateral meeting in Japan, in a statement reported by the official Xinhua news agency. No further details were provided.
Moon also asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Tuesday for UN inspectors to observe the promised shutdown of the North's only known nuclear testing site at Punggye-ri.
In Tokyo, Moon will also have a separate summit with Abe to discuss ways to develop "future-oriented ties" with Japan, it added.
The South and Japan face a common threat from the North's nuclear and missile technology but have locked horns over the issue of South Korean women forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War II, and a row over Seoul-controlled islets claimed by Tokyo.
The two Koreas share a bitter resentment over Japan's brutal 1910-45 occupation of the peninsula and the so-called "comfort women" are a hugely emotional issue in the South.
Trump said Monday he was confident his landmark summit with Kim will go ahead, as he talked up the idea of holding it in the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas.
Trump revealed last week that two or three locations were under consideration for the historic meeting -- which would be the first between a sitting US president and a leader of North Korea -- but had yet to publicly name a potential site.
Addressing a joint press conference with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari, Trump confirmed that Singapore was under consideration as a location, but -- following on from a morning tweet -- said the DMZ should be given strong consideration.
"There's something I like about it because you're there -- if things work out, there's a great celebration to be had on the site, not in a third party country," Trump said.
"We're also looking at other countries including Singapore," the US leader added. "Everybody wants us -- it has the chance to be a big event."
Other potential locations reportedly include Mongolia and Switzerland.
