South Korean President Park Geun-Hye and Chinese and Japanese premiers Li Keqiang and Shinzo Abe discussed a wide range of topics, from free trade to the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, during a 90-minute sit down in Seoul.
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During a summit on November 2 with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President Park Geun-hye suggested “carrying on our trade cooperation relationship with the Trans-Pacific Partnership as well”.
Japan, South Korea and China had their first trilateral meeting on Sunday in over three years and the three countries issued a joint statement that their relation now is “completely restored”.
The Japanese government has said it would stick to its longtime stance that the issue of war reparations was legally resolved in a 1965 treaty between Japan and South Korea, which normalized diplomatic relations.
Yet many voiced dissatisfaction with the meeting’s lack of progress on the wartime “comfort women” issue.
Statues honoring Korean and Chinese comfort women were erected in Seoul.
“It’s the 50th anniversary of the normalization of ties (Japan-South Korea) this year”, he said. “Keeping that in mind, we have agreed to accelerate talks for the earliest possible resolution”, Abe said though did not outline a timeline.
The summit is a sign that relations will improve in future, including with Japan.
Park said she agreed with Abe and Li to work toward the conclusion of a 16-nation free trade area as well as a separate three-way free trade deal that has been on the table since 2013.
Abe apparently referred during the meeting to such issues as lawsuits by former South Korean workers demanding compensation for allegedly being forced to work during the war.
Ashton Carter and Han Min-koo also expressed “grave concern” over the North’s intent to conduct long-range missile launch and a nuclear test, according to a joint statement issued after they held talks.
“Regarding the issue of “comfort women”, I believe we should not leave behind difficulties for future generations as we try to build a future-oriented cooperative relationship”, Abe told reporters in Seoul after the talks, which lasted about an hour and 40 minutes.
Beijing, which claims jurisdiction over the 12 nautical miles (20 kilometers) of territorial waters around the islands as well as most of the South China Sea, protested the incident as a provocation.
Outside of North Korea, no other regional flashpoints – such as the South China Sea issue – made it into the joint declaration.
The talks seemed most likely to resume for a brief time in 2012, when Kim Jong Un took power in North Korea following the death of his father, Kim Jong Illinois.
Currently, there are 28,500 U.S. servicemen deployed in South Korea.
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The United States and South Korea were also set to review the recent crisis with the North, in which a landmine explosion injuring two South Korean soldiers, the South’s broadcast of anti-Pyongyang propaganda, and an exchange of artillery fire across the demilitarised zone (DMZ) ratcheted up tensions.
