S. Korean gov't to unify official term for Northeast Asian trio as South Korea-China-Japan

SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean government decided to unify an official term for a Northeast Asian trio as South Korea-China-Japan, Yonhap news agency reported Sunday, citing an unnamed official of the South Korean presidential office.

The official was quoted as saying the Lee Jae-myung administration will unify the official term for the three Northeast Asian countries as South Korea-China-Japan, the order of expression most people use most frequently.

Under the previous administration, the official term for the trio was not unified as the order of South Korea-China-Japan and South Korea-Japan-China was used interchangeably.

The official was quoted as saying that using both expressions sparked unnecessary controversies, including the one that relations with a specific country had become closer.

The previous government began to use the order of South Korea-Japan-China following then but now ousted President Yoon Suk-yeol's attendance at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in September 2023, according to Yonhap.

Yonhap said the restoration of the South Korea-China-Japan expression can be seen as a conciliatory move toward China and a firm stance toward Japan, which stemmed from President Lee's pragmatic diplomacy principle.

Another presidential office official was quoted as saying that the previous government too heavily leaned toward Japan for an ideological diplomacy, adding that putting things back to the original state would be a correct approach.