Korea, Japan to Hold First Summit in three Years of time

South Korean and Chinese ties with Japan have been troubled by what they see as repeated failures by leaders in Tokyo to properly atone for wartime atrocities, in particular for Seoul over “comfort women”, as the mostly Korean women forced into prostitution at Japanese military brothels are called. In those precarious days, the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea met to discuss economic cooperation and decided to make it an annual event.

At the 10+3 summit previous year, South Korean President Park Geun-hye voiced her hope that the three countries would hold a foreign ministers’ meeting in the near future and then a trilateral summit. She also expressed hope that there will be no more controversies or wounds caused by the past. On Monday, she is scheduled to have a similar meeting with Japan’s Abe. The sixth China-Japan-South Korea trilateral summit is set to be held on Sunday, November 1 in Seoul.

A representative of the South Korean group said similar statues will be set up in Shanghai and San Francisco.

The Japanese government, said Yazaki Mitsuharu, head of the secretariat of Japan-China Friendship Association, should from now on try to earn the trust of China and South Korea with right words and actions and roll out practical measures to promote regional cooperation. Experts who are well-versed in relations between South Korea and Japan suggest that this summit should focus on restoring the bilateral contact that was cut off after the summit between former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in May 2012 and to transition from a conflict phase to a management phase.

“There are many hard issues between our nation, but that should mean no conditions are put on a leaders’ meeting beforehand – as we have said repeatedly”, he added. “If the two leaders are to improve bilateral relations, they need to show a capacity for diplomacy that goes beyond domestic political considerations”, said Moon Chung-in, a professor at Yonsei University.

Working-level discussions were held Thursday in the South Korean capital to hammer out language for the joint statement.

She said the summit will be an opportunity to conclude the sex slavery issue so that the victims won’t have to agonize over an already painful wound.