[Editorial] Korea must prepare for what may come of US-China-Russia talks

Chances are improving that the first-ever trilateral summit between US, China and Russia will go down during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, on Nov. 18-19.

 Such a meeting might not produce any concrete agreements. But the mere fact that the three leaders sat down together could have far-reaching implications for the international order. To establish exactly what was said about Korean Peninsula issues with a direct bearing on our future, Seoul needs to reach out not only to our allies in Washington, but also to Beijing and Moscow.

 In a statement Wednesday, the US State Department said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on the phone with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on that day.

 “The two discussed President Trump’s upcoming travel to the APEC Summit in China and General Secretary Xi’s upcoming visit to Florida to attend the G20 Summit,” the readout said. “They agreed on the importance of meaningful leader-level conversations to advance goals such as peace and denuclearization, including at any potential trilateral leaders meeting with Russia.”

 In the readout, the State Department made a point of publicly confirming that the US and China had discussed the possibility of a trilateral summit involving Russia. China's Foreign Ministry made no mention of such a meeting in its own account of Rubio and Wang’s phone call.

 The South China Morning Post, a newspaper based in Hong Kong, reported on Wednesday that “the three nations have engaged in weeks of back-and-forth discussion to nail down the agenda and protocol” for the prospective summit.

 “The sources said that the war in Ukraine and denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula had largely fallen off the table as possible topics,” the newspaper reported, adding that “the US has also insisted on raising nuclear arms controls between the three countries, a suggestion that China has long rejected.”

 The newspaper suggested that the leaders might instead reach an agreement on less contentious issues, such as regulating the use of artificial intelligence in nuclear weapons systems.

 Should it be held, the trilateral summit meeting could go down in history as a symbolic turning point, heralding a transition from a unipolar international order built on US hegemony to a multipolar era increasingly shaped by horse trading among the major powers.

 A Blue House official addressed the prospect of a trilateral summit at a briefing on Thursday.

 “We cannot rule out the possibility of Korean Peninsula issues being discussed. We are keeping a close eye on that possibility and maintaining communication, as needed, with the countries concerned,” the official said.

 If such meetings become a regular occurrence, the world faces the risk of being governed not by international law but by closed-door deals between the three great powers. Korea must be prepared to monitor developments closely, so as to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is not discussed without its knowledge.