Top diplomats from South Korea, China and Japan may discuss the arrangement of a trilateral summit if they hold a meeting within this year, a Seoul official said Thursday.

"If the foreign ministers' meeting is held by year-end, the issue of holding trilateral summit talks among South Korea, China and Japan would naturally be discussed there," foreign ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il said in a press briefing. "Lying at the peak of trilateral South Korea-China-Japan cooperation is a trilateral summit meeting."

 His comments came after President Park Geun-hye and Chinese President Xi Jinping alluded to their push to revive their long-suspended foreign ministers' meeting also involving Japan during their summit meeting held earlier this week on the sidelines of the APEC gathering in Beijing.

The trilateral foreign ministers' meeting, a main channel of communications among the three Northeast Asian nations, was last held in mid-2012 and has been stalled due to regional diplomatic tensions triggered by territorial and historical issues.

The trilateral summit meeting has also been dormant since mid-2012.

Asked to confirm whether the foreign ministers' meeting has been arranged, Noh said, "There has been no agreement so far as far as I know," adding that "as we are virtually taking the role of a chair country, (we) will closely collaborate with Japan and China to hold the meeting within this year." 

Noh, however, noted that Japan first needs to demonstrate "sincere" efforts to solve the wartime sexual enslavement issue with South Korea for the trilateral summit to take place. (Yonhap)