Trade ministers of South Korea, China and Japan agreed on Sunday to accelerate trilateral free trade talks and step up efforts to conclude a larger Asia-Pacific trade deal.

The agreement was made in a three-way meeting of South Korea's Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Sung Yun-mo, China's Commerce Minister Zhong Shan and Japan's Economy and Trade Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama in Beijing. 

Seoul's Trade Ministry said that in the meeting held ahead of a trilateral summit, the three sides agreed to accelerate their talks to conclude a comprehensive, high-level free trade agreement. 

They also agreed to make efforts to successfully conclude the mega Asia-Pacific trade pact known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership next year. 

The three-way trade ministerial meeting was held for the first time in over three years. The last one took place in Tokyo in October 2016.  

After the meeting, Minister Sung met with Kajiyama for about ten minutes at around 7:40 p.m. Details of the discussions were not disclosed, but the two sides are thought to have discussed ways to resolve the ongoing row over Japan's export curbs against South Korea.