Ashton Carter says ‘no’ to South Korea fighter jet request

Since taking office in February 2013, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye has refused to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, arguing that Tokyo has yet to properly atone for abuses carried out during the colonial period.

Senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs Ju Chul-ki separately told reporters that the date of the summit talks has not been confirmed, though it is likely to be held around November 1. The Korean peninsula was under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945.

Defense Minister Han Min-koo and his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani will hold talks next week on bilateral issues, including Japan’s security legislation that expands the Japanese military’s role overseas, the Defense Ministry said Friday.

South Korea has called on Japan to ensure that SDF activities will not heighten tensions among neighboring countries.

The last visit by Japan’s defense chief to South Korea was made in January 2011.

According to sources, Kawamura asked Abe, “The schedules [for the Japan-China and Japan-South Korea summit meetings] have yet to be decided, I suppose?”

She went on to hype the trilateral diplomacy that she said was a “new endeavor” to make important contributions to improving bilateral and multinational cooperation in Northeast Asia, the only region that lacks mechanisms for multilateral cooperation.

Ms Park also expressed support for the recently completed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, hinting that South Korea could join in the future.

After an extended period of glacial diplomatic mistrust, there are signs that South Korea and Japan, with prodding from their mutual United States military ally, are making genuine, albeit hesitant, moves towards normalisation. But the job at hand is completing the processes regarding TPP.