TOKYO (AP) - The Latest on the Japan[1]-China[2]-South Korea[3] trilateral summit (all times local):
7:45 p.m.
Japan[4] and China[5] have signed an agreement to launch a defense hotline aimed at preventing military clashes stemming from their territorial row over East China Sea islands.
The hotline under a memorandum signed Wednesday will take effect next month.
The agreement concludes the countries’ decade-long negotiations on the communication mechanism, which had stalled after the island row escalated in 2012 when Tokyo[6] nationalized the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands, which China[7] calls Diaoyu.
The two sides, however, stayed away from resolving the row itself.
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5 p.m.
South Korean President Moon Jae[8]-in says that North Korea[9] supports denuclearization in principle, but the actual steps to achieve it will be difficult....
Moon[10] met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday shortly after a three-way meeting in Tokyo[11] with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.A Japanese official says Moon[12] and Abe agreed to work together to figure out the necessary steps for North Korea[13] to give up its nuclear weapons.They welcomed North Korea[14]’s recent announcement that it would close a nuclear test site and agreed that it must lead to further efforts to achieve full denuclearization.Moon[15] received a small surprise as he was wrapping up his working lunch with Abe: a cake to mark his first anniversary since taking office in May last year.___1 p.m.China[16], Japan[17] and South Korea[18] have agreed to work together to get North Korea[19] to give up its nuclear weapons and on a three-way and regional free trade agreements.The agreements came Wednesday at a meeting in Tokyo[20] with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Moon Jae[21]-in.It was the first such trilateral summit since November 2015.Abe reiterated Japan[22]’s position that it would normalize ties with North Korea[23] only if the latter took concrete steps toward abandoning its nuclear and missile programs and resolved the issue of Japanese abducted by North Korean agents.A Japanese official said the leaders agreed to work toward both a free trade pact among themselves and the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with Southeast Asian nations.___10:45 a.m.China[24], South Korea[25] and Japan[26] have begun their first trilateral summit in more than two years.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe opened the summit Wednesday in Tokyo[27] with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Moon Jae[28]-in.They are expected to take up the recent flurry of developments on the Korean peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met