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| Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, right, attends the opening of the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to listen to President Park Geun-hye's speech. / Yonhap |
By Joint Press Corps and Kim Tae-gyu
DAVOS, Switzerland ― Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unexpectedly showed up at President Park Geun-hye's speech to the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Wednesday (local time).
Abe took a seat on the front line, carefully listened to Park and applauded after Park finished the 15-minute address on how to galvanize the global economy; however, the two did not meet.
Whether the two leaders meet at the forum is of interest to observers as relations between Seoul and Tokyo hit a serious low point after Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine ― which houses 14 Class-A war criminals ― last month.
Originally, Abe was scheduled to arrive in Davos on 11:45 a.m. five minutes before Park's keynote speech, and so his attendance was not expected.
But he arrived earlier than scheduled so he could show up at the event. Korean officials said that they did not know of the changed itinerary since Japan did not notify Korea.
Meanwhile, President Park said the unification of the two Koreas would offer great business opportunities not only to Korea but also its neighbors of China and Russia.
She made the point while answering a question from WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab on the economic effects of unification.
"I recently said that we can hit a jackpot with unification because we will have big investment opportunities in the North in areas such as social overhead capital (SOC)," Park said reminding the audience of remarks made during her New Year message this year.
"It can also induce investments not just in the North but China's three northeastern provinces and Russia's maritime province of Siberia. Hence, unification would offer jackpots to all Northeast Asian nations."
The provinces of China and Russia adjoin North Korea.
In addition, Park said that the two Koreas should end their long separation in the aftermath of the Korean War (1950-53) for humanitarian reasons.
"North Koreans are suffering greatly from hunger and the violation of human rights. If the two Koreas reunite, it will help deal with their hardships," she said.
To achieve the lucrative unification, Park vowed not to remain on the sidelines but to put forth active efforts.
"To create the future is the best way to predict the future. We will not sit idly by for unification. Based on a strong security capability, we will create an environment that will lead to unification," she concluded.
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