Welcome move toward a peaceful region

After a three-year hiatus, the 6th China-Japan-Republic of Korea summit was held in Seoul on Sunday. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attended the summit on the sidelines of his visit to the ROK from Saturday to Monday, which included talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and ROK President Park Geun-hye.

The summit was not held during the past three years, which could have been used to deepen trilateral cooperation. One of the reasons for that was the tensions in East China Sea over maritime territorial disputes, which escalated in 2012. Just a year after he assumed office in 2012, Abe paid a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, which among others honors 14 Class-A war criminals, dealing a blow to Japan's relationship with China and the ROK both.

That proved pragmatic trilateral cooperation has a lot to do with their political ties, in which problems left over by history play a fundamental role. In other words, historical issues can neither be avoided nor ignored by any of the three countries.