Japan, China, SKorea to discuss nuclear issue at new forum

SEOGWIPO (AFP) - Foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan launched a new forum here Sunday, with the deadlock in North Korea's nuclear disarmament high on the agenda.

South Korea's Song Min-Soon, China's Yang Jiechi and Japan's Taro Aso arrived in the southern resort island of Jeju for the trilateral forum, which host Seoul wants to make a regular event.

"It is quite natural to discuss North Korea's nuclear problem, which has become the most pressing regional security issue," South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Shim Yoon-Joe said in a briefing last week.

The three countries since 2003 have been part of now-stalled six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program, along with the North itself and the United States and Russia.