By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

With the region’s stability mired in difficulties due to their historical spats and the North Korean nuclear problem, top diplomats from South Korea, China and Japan are set to hold bilateral and trilateral talks in Kyoto, Japan, from Friday.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon on Thursday arrived in the ancient Japanese city to attend a ministerial session of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) slated for May 6-7, on the sidelines of which he is to have meetings with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts.

Officials said the foreign ministers’ meetings will largely be focused on ways to revive the stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs as well as to mend fences among the neighboring countries after the recent rows over shared history.

Ban is scheduled to have a one-on-one meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing at a hotel early this morning and then hold another round of talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in the afternoon at the same place, the officials said.

While meeting Li, Ban is expected to ask for China to be more proactive in persuading the reclusive North to return to the six-party talks, which have remained dormant since last June, and discuss agendas for next week’s summit meeting between the two countries.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Chinese President Hu Jintao are scheduled to hold a summit on Monday in Moscow on the sidelines of the events to commemorate the 60th anniversary of World War II.

South Korea, which has been unenthusiastic with tougher measures favored by the United States and Japan, has recently hinted at a possible turnaround in dealing with the North if it continues to boycott the six-party talks, which also involves Russia.

Japan’s conservative daily, Sankei Shimbun, reported Thursday that Washington and Tokyo are currently consulting steps to bring the North Korean nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), a move which Pyongyang threatened to accept as a ``declaration of war.’’

Ban will also discuss the nuclear issue with Machimura. But, coming at a time when the ties between the two nations have soured in recent months, the talks will likely be overshadowed by the issues of Dokdo and Japanese schoolbooks.

Japan has been in serious diplomatic rows with South Korea after it renewed its claim on the South Korean-held Dokdo islets and approved some textbooks that glorify its imperialistic past and gloss over wartime atrocities. Japan-China ties are also mired in similar problems.

Topics for the Ban-Machimura talks are also expected to include a planned visit by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to South Korea to have a summit with President Roh sometime by the first half of this year.

Together with his luncheon meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week, Roh will have a series of summits with leaders of the countries participating in the six-party talks, including U.S. President George W. Bush as well as Hu and Koizumi, by the end of June.

The U.S. and Japan want the five nations to convene a new round of six-party talks without North Korea soon, a preparatory move to refer the case to the Security Council, the top U.N. decision-making body where China and Russia wield their veto powers.

Ban, Li and Machimura will also hold a three-way session tomorrow, but it will likely focus on broader topics like the promotion of East Asia Community (EAC), in the course of whose establishment the three countries will play leading roles.

The ASEM ministerial meeting is expected to touch upon the nuclear issue as well. Besides talks with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, Ban will also hold bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of Greece, Sweden, Spain and the European Union (EU) Friday.

Established in 1996, the ASEM is an intercontinental cooperation mechanism comprising the 10 members of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 25 members of the EU, plus South Korea, China, Japan and the European Commission. The forum convenes a meeting of the heads of its member states every two years, with a ministerial meeting in between.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr