The leaders of South Korea, Japan and China failed to produce a dramatic deal Sunday on history or territorial disputes, focusing more on sending a signal that they want to work together on economy and regional security.

In their first summit in more than three years, the Northeast Asian powers made the practical choice of keeping the hard-won momentum rather than breaking the mood.

"We agreed to hold the trilateral summit on a regular basis," President Park Geun-hye told reporters after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Seoul. "The normalization of the trilateral cooperative system is a big step toward peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia."

The annual three-way summit, launched in 2008, came to a halt amid soaring tensions after revisionist leader Abe returned to power in late 2012.

South Korea is at odds with Japan over its World War II sexual enslavement of Korean women. China and Japan are stuck in a fierce territorial row in the East China Sea.

Seoul and Bejing have teamed up to press Tokyo to come clean on its wartime wrongdoings.

The Abe administration, however, has spoken up on the need for "future-oriented cooperation."

"In the spirit of facing history squarely and advancing towards the future, we agreed that the three countries should address the related issues properly and to work together to improve bilateral relations and to strengthen trilateral cooperation," read a 56-point joint statement summarizing the results of the Park-Abe-Li meeting.

It is formally called "Joint Declaration for Peace and Cooperation in Northeast Asia."

It stopped short of touching on any specific history or territorial problem such as Seoul's call for Japan to offer a sincere apology to the "comfort women" and territorial spats.

The three neighbors agreed instead to step up efforts for the "economic integration of East Asia" via various measures including the conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a 16-nation free trade zone.

They also reaffirmed a commitment to the reopening of "meaningful" six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program.

Analysts said the resumption of the three-way summit process is meaningful itself.

"The summit this time carries big diplomatic significance not only in that it has recovered the three-way cooperative regime that was suspended for three and a half years but also in that it was arranged by the South Korean government's initiative," said Choi Won-ki, professor at state-run Korea National Diplomatic Academy.

South Korea's political parties also described Sunday's summit as a major step toward cementing partnerships among the three nations.

"We expect the summit outcome to serve as a cornerstone for further developing trilateral cooperation," Kim Young-woo, spokesman for the ruling Saenuri Party said in a statement.

The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy expressed hope for closer economic ties through the deal on RCEP.

"But it's regrettable that there was no advanced discussions or agreement for a resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue," the party's spokeswoman Yoo Eun-hye said.

Yoo urged Park to make good on her "pledge to resolve the comfort women issue" in the bilateral meeting with Abe slated for Monday.

Although the sensitive issue was sidelined in the tripartite session, it will be high on agenda in what would be first one-on-one meeting between Park and Abe in three years.

The Chinese premier is also expected to raise the history and territorial issues in his bilateral meeting with Abe known to be held in Seoul later Sunday.

Speaking to media after the trilateral talks, Li stressed that the common understanding on shared history is a "precondition for mutual trust." (Yonhap)