South Korea, China and Japan have resumed talks to work out differences on a free trade deal amid rising trade protectionism.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said that trade officials from the three nations held their 13th round of talks on Thursday in Seoul.  

During the two-day talks, they discussed modalities for tariff reductions, service market liberalization and other global trade issues.
  
South Korea, China and Japan have been holding trilateral talks since March 2013 to further boost trade and investment, but no major breakthroughs have been made in the past 12 rounds of talks.