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| ▲ President Yoon Suk Yeol (2nd from L) bangs the gavel to open a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on Sept. 12, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap) |
Yoon-Japan-China
Yoon vows to actively seek trilateral summit with Japan, China
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Tuesday to actively seek a trilateral summit with Japan and China, a gathering not held since 2019 due to historical disputes between Seoul and Tokyo, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yoon expressed his commitment during a Cabinet meeting held a day after he returned from a six-day trip to Indonesia and India, where he attended multilateral summits involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Group of 20, and also met on the sidelines with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
"During this trip, Premier Li Qiang and Prime Minister Kishida stated their support for the resumption of the South Korea-China-Japan summit," he said during the meeting at the presidential office. "As the chair nation, South Korea will actively push to host the South Korea-China-Japan summit."
In all of the past meetings, China has been represented by its premier, not its president.
Yoon attended six multilateral meetings and 20 bilateral meetings during his visits to Jakarta and New Delhi, including summits with Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Recalling his agreement with Modi to increase cooperation in space, Yoon urged the National Assembly to quickly pass a bill on the establishment of the Korea AeroSpace Administration, a new agency proposed by his administration.
He also called for the swift passage of a set of bills aimed at enhancing teachers' rights, noting the urgency to address a recent string of suicide deaths of teachers suffering from unruly students and malicious complaints from parents.
"Recently, we have seen a succession of tragic news in the education field," Yoon said. "Normalizing the education field is urgent."
Pending the bills' passage, Yoon instructed the education and justice ministries to swiftly draw up guidelines to ensure teachers are not punished for exercising their rightful authority.
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