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BEIJING: The leaders of China and South Korea will visit Japan's quake-tsunami disaster zone on the sidelines of their weekend three-way summit in Tokyo, a Chinese official said Wednesday.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan will meet on May 21-22 in the Japanese capital, China's Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue told reporters.
Japan's recovery from the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami - which left nearly 25,000 dead or missing and sparked the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years - will be a key point of discussion at the talks, Hu said.
“The leaders of China and South Korea will visit Japan's disaster zone,” including the area near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the Chinese minister said.
“Premier Wen wants to travel to the hardest-hit area in a show of our support and to show our sympathy to the Japanese people,” Hu said.
“Premier Wen made the decision to go to Fukushima himself.” Details of the visit to the disaster zone were still being worked out between the three nations, he said.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited unnamed sources as saying the three leaders plan to visit Fukushima together. Lee and Wen would then visit the hard-hit city of Sendai separately, the report said.
“Nuclear safety and security will certainly be a discussion point between the three countries” during the summit, Hu said.
China ordered safety inspections of its atomic plants and suspended approval of new projects after the disaster in northeast Japan sparked the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl.
Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility was rocked by explosions, fires and radiation leaks after the 9.0-magnitude quake and monster wave cut power to the plant and caused reactor fuel rods to overheat.
The three leaders will also discuss efforts to bring North Korea back to denuclearisation talks, a joint study on a three-way free trade agreement, and how better to work together on response to natural disasters, Hu said.
