South Korea, China and Japan Thursday began their eighth round of talks in Beijing to forge a three-way free trade deal, the latest negotiations that so far have produced little progress.
  

Since launching the talks in late 2012, the three nations have made little headway toward a deal that, if successful, would create one of the world's biggest economic blocs with a combined gross domestic product of $15 trillion.
  

The chief trade negotiators -- South Korean Deputy Trade Minister Kim Hak-do, and his Chinese and Japanese counterparts Wang Shouwen and Yasumasa Nagamine, started the two-day talks at a hotel in Beijing.
  

"At this round of talks, the three nations will focus on discussing ways of market access in the fields of goods, service and investment," said a South Korean delegate involved in the negotiations.
  

However, there are "still big differences between China and Japan over modalities for eliminating tariffs and ways of liberalizing service and investment," the delegate said on the condition of anonymity.
  

In a brief statement, China's commerce ministry said Thursday that the eighth round of talks is aimed at exchanging "in-depth views" on pending issues. It did not provide details.
  

Diplomatic tensions between China and Japan run deep because of competing claims over islands in the East China Sea. Relations between Seoul and Tokyo also remain frayed over Japan's unrepentant attitude over its wartime atrocities, including the sexual enslavement of women by the Japanese military during World War II. (Yonhap)