Korea-China-Japan Will Establish Economic Council

President Kim Dae-Jung, attending the ASEAN + Korea, China, Japan Summit, held a summit talks with Zhu, Rongji, Premier of the State Council, and Koizumi Junichiro, Japanese Prime Minister, and agreed to establish an economy ministerial council in which the financial and trade related ministers will participate to overcome the economic crisis and to revitalize the economy of the three nations.

The three leaders also decided to hold a `Korea-China-Japan Business Forum` in which civic organizations and the private businesses of 3 countries to discuss the details of the agreements of the Economic Ministerial Council and to promote the exchanges of the human resources and information in terms of the business and investment.

Lee Ki-Ho, the economic senior secretary to the President, explained ``the financial Ministers will discuss the cooperative measures for the financial cooperation and the issues of the macro economy and the trade Ministers will focus on the promotion of the trade cooperation and the preventive measures concerning trade conflicts.`` The Ministerial Council will be regularly held once a year from next year.

The 3 leaders also agreed to hold Foreign Minister meeting regularly to review the implementation of the 3 leaders` agreements and to strengthen the cooperative system of the police to respond the international matters such as terror, international crimes, and drugs.

The leaders agreed to create`IT Standardization Council` to research on the problems related to the standardization of the 4th generation mobile communication.

President Kim proposed, in his keynote address at the AESAN + Korea, China, Japan summit talks, three items of research projects including the transformation of `ASEAN + Korea, China, Japan` to `East Asia Summit` the foundation of `East Asian Free Trade Area` and the establishment of East Asian Forum.

In his keynote address, President Kim emphasized, ``as a intermediate stage to build a free trade area finally, free trade zones of each countries could be connected as a belt.``

President Kim met with Zhu, Rongji, China`s Premier of the State Council, and appreciated the increased cooperation with China in the financial and the insurance market and the China`s adoption of the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system. Premier Zhu expressed his intention to continue the constructive function for the improvement of the inter-Korean relationship.

ysmo@donga.com