Yonhap reported that South Korea, China and Japan will likely start their first round of trilateral free trade negotiations during the first half of 2012, in a move expected to boost trade among the three export driven countries.

In December 2011, the three countries held their final joint study meeting on the feasibility of a free trade agreement among them.

An unnamed official from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that "If there is no strong opposition from inside South Korea, talks on the China South Korea Japan FTA will be officially launched during the first half of this year, in May at the earliest."

He added that "There are still uncertainties with the process of trilateral FTA talks, although China is actively advancing them. However, South Korea seems to be more interested in initiating bilateral FTA talks."

Free trade talks between Seoul and Tokyo have been stalled since late 2004 mainly because of Japan's reluctance to lower tariffs on agricultural goods.

South Korea and Japan started preliminary talks to resume the stalled negotiations in June 2008 and have since met four times, including the latest meeting in December 2009.

(Sourced from www.yonhapnews.co.kr)