In a striking contrast to the treatment given to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, the South Korean government did not host a luncheon for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after his summit meeting with President Park Geun-hye at the Blue House Monday morning, Japanese officials said. This gathering is the 6th since the first meeting in 2008.
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But analysts say Chinese President Xi Jinping’s two meetings with Abe in November last year and April this year without preconditions and Abe’s success in dispelling USA concerns about historical revisionism during his visit to Washington in late April prodded Park to alter her approach toward Japan.
Japan has long maintained that all matters related to its colonization of Korea were settled under a 1965 treaty with Seoul. South Korean figures show Japanese investment in the country fell to $2.49 billion in 2014 from $4.55 billion in 2012 and that the number of Japanese visitors dropped to 2.28 million in 2014 from 3.52 million in 2012. According to the South Korean National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), industrial pollution is gathered by desert dust when wind blows from Beijing to the Korean peninsula, carrying lead, arsenic and cadmium. These meetings were put to a halt when China and Korea’s enmity towards Japan were heightened.
China, Japan and South Korea vows they have restored friendly relations and cooperation, leaving behind the strains and emotional pains brought about by WWII. The BOK also said it is closely monitoring external risks such as changes in the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy and economic sluggishness in China. They compromised on saying they would “speed up negotiations”. “In this sense, the agreement on the TPP has a significant meaning”. South Korea is now not a member of the mega trading bloc although many senior officials have made clear it wants to join in the future.
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Other issues impacting the North Asian neighbors – such as Korea joining the new Trans Pacific Partnership on trade, rising tensions in the South China Sea, and North Korean provocations – took a back seat as the two countries sought to resolve the thorny issue of “comfort women”.
