日中韓首脳会議、２年連続見送り　徴用工・慰安婦で対立解けず

　日中韓３カ国による首脳会議の年内開催が見送られる見通しとなった。議長国を務める韓国と、日本の関係悪化が影響し、機運が高まらなかった。日本政府関係者が１３日、明らかにした。
　日中韓首脳会議は年１回、３カ国の持ち回りで行われる。しかし、２０１９年１２月の中国での開催を最後に、２年連続で実現できないことになる。
　日韓関係は、元徴用工や元慰安婦の問題をめぐる対立が解けず、「戦後最悪」の状況が続いている。日本側は、事態打開の道筋が見えないまま韓国側と首脳同士が会談することに慎重で、再開のめどは立っていない。（2021/11/13-18:49）

Japan, China and South Korea are expected not to hold a trilateral summit within this year due to worsened Tokyo-Seoul relations, Japanese government sources said Saturday.
   The trilateral summit may not be held for the second straight year, after the latest meeting was held in China in December 2019. The summit had been held once every year, with the three countries taking turns as host.
   Relations between Japan and South Korea are now said to be in the worst state in the postwar period, with disputes over the issues of wartime Korean laborers and so-called comfort women, or Korean women who were forced into prostitution for Japanese troops, left unresolved.
   Tokyo is reluctant to hold a leaders' meeting with Seoul, which is supposed to be this year's host of the trilateral summit, before finding a breakthrough over the bilateral disputes, according to the sources. It is unclear when the trilateral summit will be resumed.
   President Xi Jinping and other high-ranking government officials in China have been refraining from going overseas amid the coronavirus pandemic. This may also be behind the prospect that the trilateral summit may not be held this year, the sources said.