International News

TOKYO, (MILLAT+APP/AFP): Japan is postponing a summit with China and
South Korea, the government said Tuesday, after the impeachment of South Korean President President Park Geun-Hye.
The Asian powers were planning to hold an annual trilateral gathering
this month in Japan, which is the rotating chair.
South Korea’s parliament voted Friday to impeach Park, who is
engulfed in a scandal over her friendship with a long-time confidante charged with meddling in state affairs.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, while not directly
mentioning Park’s impeachment, said “various factors” were behind the decision.
“We decided to re-arrange it and hold the summit at an appropriate
time next year,” he told reporters after a regular cabinet meeting.
South Korea’s foreign ministry confirmed the postponement, with a
spokesperson in Seoul saying only that the three sides “had difficulty setting a date this year”.
Park has been relieved of official duties as president and is
awaiting a decision by the country’s Constitutional Court — a process that could take months — on whether she will have to permanently step down.
She has been replaced in the interim by Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn.
Leaders of the three countries met in November last year in
South Korea, marking the first trilateral summit since 2012.
The meetings had been on ice due largely to Tokyo’s often thorny
relations with Beijing and Seoul over territorial issues and history.