South Korea, China and Japan have agreed to hold ministerial talks concerning sports in May next year in Seoul.
 
South Korea’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Kim Jong-deok and his Chinese and Japanese counterparts reached the agreement on Saturday after holding separate bilateral talks in Qingdao, China.
 
In the meetings held in the eastern Shandong Province, Kim proposed holding the trilateral talks in May in Seoul, citing major sports events planned in the three nations – the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018, the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.
 
A ministry official in Seoul said that Chinese Culture Minister Luo Shugang and State Minister Hiroyuki Yoshiie of Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology supported and agreed on Kim’s proposal.
 
The three ministers will wrap up the three-way talks on Sunday after adopting the 2015-2017 Qingdao action plan which works to pursue substantial cooperation among the three nations in culture and sports.