The three leaders agreed to increase cooperation, especially on efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.
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Ms. Park said she agreed with Mr. Abe and Mr. Li to work toward the conclusion of a 16-country free-trade bloc as well as a separate three-way pact that has been on the table since 2013.
However, he said, Ms. Parks call upon all parties to face up to history suggested that Seouls quarrels with Tokyo over World War II, including the issues of Korean comfort women and Japans colonial past, remain deeply entrenched.
But Japan claims that the issue was resolved in a 1965 treaty that normalized diplomatic ties between Seoul and Tokyo.
Beijing and Seoul see Abe as whitewashing Japan’s wartime atrocities.
The presidential office did not provide any specific time frame for a new round of talks on the former sex slaves. And at least publicly neither side expressed any willingness to compromise on this issue.
“Prime Minister Abe slightly moved towards President Park’s demand on the necessity of resolving this issue by the end of this year”, Hosaka said.
The Abe government says officially that it stands behind the so-called Kono Statement of 1993, issued by the then chief cabinet secretary, in which Tokyo formally apologized for the slavery.
On Sunday, the first in three years high-level tripartite summit between Japan, South Korea and China began in Seoul. “There are enormous possibilities there”, Abe said at a joint press conference after the summit meeting, emphasizing the importance of economic co-operation between the countries.
Besides fleshing out conditions for transferring wartime command of their overall combined forces, the talks will also include cyber defense and the trilateral relationship between the United States, South Korea, and Japan, a senior US defence official told reporters prior to the meeting.
Launched in 2003, the Six Party Talks are negotiations between China, the US, North and South Korea, Japan, and Russian Federation aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear program. The 1 November trilateral summit also focused on economic ties with China, in particular, keen to strengthen trade links to boost declining exports.
“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 closely watched meeting between Park and Abe came a day after they joined a three-way summit with China’s premier and agreed to improve ties strained over historical and territorial disputes.
Japan has offered support for US efforts to protect important worldwide shipping lanes in the South China Sea.
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“The three key countries dealing with North Korea are the US, China and South Korea”. Twelve Pacific economies – including Japan and the USA, but not South Korea or China – recently settled on the agreement. Given that this summit hadn’t been held in three years, though, even getting Abe, Li, and Park in the same room together was an accomplishment.
