Top diplomats from Japan and China meet in South Korea

Top diplomats from Japan and China met for bilateral talks Saturday to try to resolve disputes including China’s ban on Japanese seafood, which has hit Japanese exporters.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, met in South Korea’s southern port city of Busan. They will join their host, Park Jin, for three-way talks on Sunday.
Kamikawa, who took office in September and met with Wang in person for the first time, said their meeting was “extremely meaningful.” She said they had agreed to start security and economic meetings, but gave no details.
Japanese and Chinese leaders met 10 days ago in San Francisco, on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and achieved a vague agreement on easing the seafood dispute. China’s ban on Japanese seafood has been in place since the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant began discharging treated radioactive wastewater into the sea on Aug. 24.
Japan says the wastewater is much safer than international standards and that the International Atomic Energy Agency has concluded the environmental and health impact of its release is negligible. China calls the discharge “nuclear-contaminated water.”