On the other hand, Abe and Park agreed to resume formal talks on Monday to resolve the decades-old issue of Korean women forced into Japanese military-run brothels during World War II.
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“I hope this summit can be truthful and take the opportunity to settle the matter, heal the wounds of the past, and help improve bilateral relations”, said Park Geun-Hye, South Korean president.
“The two leaders agreed to speed up consultations to try to resolve the comfort women question as quickly as possible”, the Blue House said, adding that Park had referred to the issue as the “biggest stumbling block” to friendly relations.
The South Korea-Japan summit in Seoul followed a trilateral meeting with China on Sunday, at which the leaders of the three nations declared co-operation was “completely” restored as the need to shore up flagging economies and respond to a nuclear-armed North Korea trumped historical animosities.
But Japan claims that the issue was resolved in a 1965 treaty that normalized diplomatic ties between Seoul and Tokyo. South Korea press reported that during the summit Abe had mentioned a standing South Korea lawsuit against the Seoul bureau chief of Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun Tatsuya Kato, who was charged with publishing defamatory articles about Park.
Abe has in the past been critical of China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, through which much of Japan and South Korea’s trade and energy supplies pass. Many South Koreans believed that PM Abe was attempting to whitewash the heinous actions the Japanese inflicted on Koreans and Chinese civilians during the Japanese colonization of the two countries in early 20thcentury.
Although little of substance emerged from Monday’s meeting or the trilateral summit a day earlier, the talks represent a breakthrough of sorts for the three countries, whose strong trade ties have been tainted by testy diplomatic relations.
North Korea was on the agenda at Sunday’s three-way meeting.
It has been a politically popular stance in South Korea where Abe remains extremely unpopular, amid suspicions that he wants to water down Tokyo’s past apologies for its wartime aggression.
Referring to Pyongyang’s undeterred adamance on the planned launch of a ballistic missile launch and a proposed nuclear test, both prohibited under United Nations regulations, Carter said: “Both are stark reminders that North Korea is an upclose, risky and continuing threat to the security of the peninsula and the region”. South Korea also rejected the fund. The leaders agreed that the summit would be “held on a regular basis in the three countries”, with Japan hosting the next one in 2016.
The joint statement included a commitment to sealing a trilateral free-trade agreement that would provide a counterpoint to the new US-led Pacific trade pact of which China and South Korea are not members.
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The three Northeast Asian neighbors also reaffirmed their support for restarting “six party” global talks to peacefully end North Korea’s nuclear program.
