Shin Kak-soo, former Korean ambassador to Japan, delivers a keynote speech during the 6th NEAR Korea-China-Japan Seoul Process at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry building in Seoul, Monday. Newsis

Korea, China and Japan should set up security dialogues and hotlines to advance cooperation in the domain of security, an area where they currently lag, former Korean Ambassador to Japan Shin Kak-soo said, Monday.

“It is true that cooperation in political and security fields (between Korea, China and Japan) lags far behind those in other fields such as economy, the environment, culture and people-to-people exchanges,” Shin said in his keynote speech during the NEAR Korea-China-Japan Seoul Process forum.

"We should nurture a culture of dialogue and seek an avenue for the peaceful settlement of disputes," he said.

On that point, the former envoy proposed that the three countries should launch security dialogue channels as well as hotlines to alleviate mistrust and prevent accidental flare-ups. He also suggested opening communication channels among top military leaders, with a platform of retired generals as its prelude.

"We should start low-level confidence-building measures and move on to higher-level confidence-building measures depending on the progress made," Shin added.

The forum, organized by the NEAR Foundation, a Seoul-based private think tank specializing in Northeast Asia, brought together pundits from the three countries. This was the sixth edition since its launch in 2016 and the first in-person meeting in four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Held under the theme “A Roadmap for Sustainable Peace and Prosperity in Northeast Asia,” this year's event focused on ways to deepen cooperation by leveraging the momentum from the recentSeoul-Beijing-Tokyo trilateral summit held in Seoul on May 27.

Participants attend the 6th NEAR Korea-China-Japan Seoul Process at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry building in Seoul, Monday. Newsis

The summit, held after a four-and-a-half-year hiatus, signaled a revival of long-stalled dialogue between the three Asian neighbors. However, it failed to resolve differing stances on security issues, such as Pyongyang's military threats and tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

During Monday's forum, Justin Yifu Lin, dean of Peking University's Institute of New Structural Economics and former vice president of the World Bank, asserted that the U.S. is adopting a military strategy in its "pivot to the Asia Pacific." He claimed this strategy aims to build a military alliance to encircle China, thereby stirring up tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

“The U.S. also uses ideology to encourage countries to take sides and break ties with China,” Lin said, stressing that such actions create an unfavorable regional environment for Korea and Japan as well.

On the economic front, experts called for a swift launch of discussions to resume the second stage of the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations, as agreed at the May 27 summit.

Ijuin Atsushi, lead economist at the Japan Center for Economic Research, believes that the trade pact among the three Asian nations should exceed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in scope and quality. RCEP is an FTA among 15 Asia-Pacific nations, including Korea, China and Japan.

“Considering that we already have RCEP, which includes Japan, China, and Korea, a three-way FTA will not carry significant meaning unless it involves deeper-level trade agreements," Ijuin said.

He added, "FTA negotiations often involve conflicting economic interests, so I don't expect the process to be smooth. But I believe these issues can be addressed through a series of high-level meetings involving leaders and senior officials.”