The top diplomats of South Korea, China and Japan agreed on Saturday to continue efforts to hold a trilateral summit of their leaders at an early date as they seek to revive cooperation amid history and territorial rows.

The pledge came at a meeting between South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Chinese and Japanese counterparts Wang Yi and Fumio Kishida. The trilateral meeting was held for the first time in almost three years.

"The three ministers decided to continue their efforts to hold the trilateral summit at the earliest convenient time for the three countries," Yun told a press conference.

A trilateral summit has not been held since May 2012.

In November, South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressed her hope to meet with the Chinese and Japanese leaders following a meeting of their top diplomats.

"By facing history squarely and advancing toward the future, the three foreign ministers also agreed that the three nations should address related issues properly and to work together to improve bilateral relations and to strengthen trilateral cooperation," Yun added.

Relations between South Korea and Japan, and China and Japan have been strained for years due mainly to Tokyo's attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities and colonial occupation.

Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910-45 and controlled much of China in the early part of the 20th century.

South Korea and Japan have long been at odds over the issue of Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japan's troops during World War II.

Meanwhile, China and Japan have been sparring over a territorial dispute involving islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

"For the three countries, the issue of shared history is not a matter of the past, but a current issue," Wang said in a press conference. "It is important to face up to the history and move forward to the future based on such understanding.

The foreign ministers also reaffirmed their "firm opposition"

to North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

"The three ministers decided to continue their joint efforts to resume meaningful six-party talks to make substantial progress in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," a joint statement showed.

The six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have been dormant since late 2008 when the North walked away from the negotiation table.

Pyongyang later demanded that the six-party talks should resume without any preconditions. But Seoul and Washington have said that North Korea should first demonstrate its willingness to denuclearize.

"We cannot tolerate Pyongyang's nuclear program. It is important to make the world free of nuke weapons as this year marks the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan," Kishida said.

The ministers also agreed to make efforts towards the acceleration of negotiations for a trilateral free trade agreement.

The trilateral meeting also came at a time when Seoul's diplomacy has been put to the test amid a mounting Washington-Beijing row over the possibility of an advanced U.S.

missile defense system on Korean soil and a China-led Asian development bank.

South Korea is struggling to walk a diplomatic tightrope between the U.S., Seoul's key ally, and China, Seoul's largest trading partner, over the sensitive security issue.

Separately, Yun held bilateral meetings with Wang and Kishida, respectively, earlier in the day.

Wang did not bring up the controversial issue of Washington's possible deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system on Korean soil at the meeting with Yun, according to a Seoul official.

Yun and Fumio, meanwhile, agreed to make efforts for progress over ongoing bilateral talks on the former sex slaves.

Last April, Seoul and Tokyo launched talks on Japan's sex slavery, but no breakthrough has been made due largely to Japan's attitude. (Yonhap)