By Sohn JiAe

Korea, China and Japan have adopted a special statement in which the three countries support the Panmunjeom Declaration agreed upon at the 2018 Inter-Korean Summit. 

The trilateral statement struck jointly by President Moon Jae-in, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Premier Li Keqiang during the seventh Korea-Japan-China Summit in Tokyo on May 9, welcomes the Panmunjeom Declaration and affirms the goal of “complete denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.”

In the statement, the three leaders hoped for the success of the follow-up U.S.-North Korea Summit, and vowed to continue trilateral efforts so that the success of the Inter-Korean Summit would contribute to peace and security across Northeast Asia. 

President Moon said in a joint press conference after the summit that, “Today, we share the idea that complete denuclearization, the establishment of a permanent peace and better inter-Korean ties will play a key role in achieving peace and prosperity across Northeast Asia.” 

“We all hope and promise that Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo will continue to work and cooperate closely in the process of establishing permanent peace in the region. When we all gather our strength and minds, I’m sure we can open a new era of peace and prosperity on the peninsula and across the Northeast Asian region,” he said. “The summit today will hopefully serve as a milestone that will further deepen and develop trilateral cooperation,” the president added. 

The Chinese premier welcomed the success of the latest Inter-Korean Summit, saying that he hopes that this would be followed with dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea and further dialogue between Japan and the North, as well. 

Meanwhile, the Japanese leader welcomed the two Koreas working for complete denuclearization in their joint declaration, saying that, “We must take advantage of this opportunity to completely and verifiably disassemble nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, all under the U.N. Security Council’s resolutions.” 

Besides issues concerning the Korean Peninsula, the three leaders talked about ways to increase trilateral cooperation, including joint efforts to resolve issues of mutual interest, such as particulate matter and air pollution, infectious and chronic diseases and aging societies, cooperation on energy and IT, and the goal of increasing trilateral human-to-human exchanges to more than 30 million people by the year 2020. 

They also agreed to hold trilateral summits on a regular basis. All these agreements led to another joint statement among the three countries. 

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