The leaders of China and South Korea may visit areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 11 during their trilateral summit meeting, set for Tokyo on May 21-22.
The leaders of China and South Korea may visit areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 11 during their trilateral summit meeting, set for Tokyo on May 21-22.
The Chinese government's advance team arrived in Japan May 11 to work out the summit agenda for Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak and foreign minister Kim Sung-hwan will also visit Japan.
Wen will visit Sendai and possibly Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, where a Chinese rescue team conducted relief operations. He may also go to Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, home to Sato Suisan Co., a seafood processing company.
Mitsuru Sato, an executive of Sato Suisan, drowned in the tsunami after evacuating 20 Chinese trainees to higher ground. Reports of the episode were widely disseminated in China.
South Korea's Lee is also considering a visit to Sendai, where the country has a consulate general. A South Korean rescue unit also operated in Sendai after the quake.
During working-level talks among the three nations in Tokyo on May 6, Japan's foreign ministry officials proposed a plan suggested by Prime Minister Naoto Kan to hold the summit's opening ceremony in the city of Fukushima.
However, the Chinese and South Koreans were surprised by the proposal involving a visit to the prefecture that hosts the troubled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The plan is likely to be shelved.