SEOUL: South Korea, China and Japan will hold talks next month on regional security and cooperation, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday, with North Korea's rocket plan set to figure on the sidelines.
Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan will hold the two-day talks with counterparts Yang Jiechi from China and Japan's Koichiro Gemba in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo starting April 7, said ministry spokesman Cho Byung-Jae.
Cho said North Korea's rocket launch planned for mid-April was certain to be raised bilaterally on the sidelines of the three-way talks, the sixth of their kind.
Defying international appeals and expressions of concern from its close ally China, the North says it will launch a satellite between April 12-16.
Japan's Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported earlier Thursday that the North has started fuelling the long-range rocket.
Cho said he could not confirm the report, calling it an intelligence matter.
South Korea, the United States, Japan and other countries have condemned the planned launch as a pretext to test ballistic missile technology, in defiance of United Nations resolutions.