South Korea, China and Japan will hold a new round of talks in December aimed at forging a three-way free trade deal, China's commerce ministry has said, citing "some positive developments" in the previous round of negotiations.

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.

China's commerce ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told reporters on Thursday that the three nations reported "some positive development on some issues" during the previous round of talks, which was held in Beijing from Sept. 24-25.

South Korea, China and Japan agreed to forge a "high-standard FTA," Shen said, according to his remarks posted on the Chinese ministry's website on Friday.

Shen did not elaborate further and a ninth round of three-way free trade talks will be held in December in Japan.

The United States and 11 Pacific Rim nations, including Japan, reached the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) earlier this month that covers about 40 percent of the global economy. South Korea has said it may eventually join the TPP.

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)