South Korea, Japan and China held a high-level meeting on Tuesday to discuss three-way cooperation while also exploring the possibility of resuming a trilateral summit. 

According to Seoul's foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk, South Korea's deputy foreign minister Chung Byung-won, Japan's senior deputy foreign minister Takehiro Funakoshi and China's assistant minister of foreign affairs Nong Rong agreed to hold the trilateral meeting at the earliest, mutually convenient time.

However, if the three-way summit is held, it will be attended by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang and not President Xi Jinping.

A government official said that the specific time of the summit will be discussed through diplomatic channels.

The summits of the leaders of South Korea, Japan and China began in December 2008, but have been suspended since 2019 following tensions between Seoul and Tokyo over forced labor compensation rulings as well as the the COVID-19 pandemic.