By Chung Min-uck
High-ranking officials from Korea and Japan will hold talks Wednesday in Seoul on key issues, including thorny historical matters that have strained bilateral relations between the two Northeast Asian nations for decades.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki's two-day trip to Korea that ends Thursday is a formal one following Seoul's designation of new First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong late last month.
Observers view the talks move as a conciliatory step taken by Seoul and Tokyo.
"We will first listen to what Japan has to say," a foreign ministry official said Monday, hinting at a possible change in Korea's principled stance against Japan's right-wing drive.
"All range of bilateral issues are open for discussion," the official added.
Relations between the two neighbors remain at a low ebb due to Japan's attempts to whitewash its wartime wrongdoings by reexamining their 1993 statement that admitted and apologized for sexual enslavement of Korean women during the World War II and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paying respects in December at the controversial Yasukuni shrine, a symbol of Japan's imperial past.
Seoul has criticized the moves via various bilateral and international channels.
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se urged Japan at the U.N. Human Rights Council session last week to admit the sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women committed by Japanese imperial soldiers and make efforts to resolve the humanitarian issue.
In line with this, President Park Geun-hye also refuses to meet with Abe.
However, Wednesday's talks between Korea and Japan's vice foreign ministers mark the first high-ranking official meeting between the two neighbors since Abe's Yasukuni visit, raising hopes for better relations between the two countries.
Experts say that Washington played a role in bringing their Asian allies back to the negotiation table.
Reportedly, the U.S. recently voiced concern to Japan about an attempt to modify the symbolic 1993 statement made by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, which would further strain Korea-Japan relations.
Consequently on Monday, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga at a press conference, reversing its position, said the Japanese government is not planning to modify the so-called 1993 Kono statement but is merely verifying the relative sources used when the statement was drafted.
Washington has long called on Seoul and Tokyo to mend fences as good relations between the neighboring nations are necessary to maintain a strong U.S. presence in East Asia in the face of the rising power of China and provocations from North Korea.
High-ranking officials from Korea and Japan will hold talks Wednesday in Seoul on key issues, including thorny historical matters that have strained bilateral relations between the two Northeast Asian nations for decades.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki's two-day trip to Korea that ends Thursday is a formal one following Seoul's designation of new First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong late last month.
Observers view the talks move as a conciliatory step taken by Seoul and Tokyo.
"We will first listen to what Japan has to say," a foreign ministry official said Monday, hinting at a possible change in Korea's principled stance against Japan's right-wing drive.
"All range of bilateral issues are open for discussion," the official added.
Relations between the two neighbors remain at a low ebb due to Japan's attempts to whitewash its wartime wrongdoings by reexamining their 1993 statement that admitted and apologized for sexual enslavement of Korean women during the World War II and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paying respects in December at the controversial Yasukuni shrine, a symbol of Japan's imperial past.
Seoul has criticized the moves via various bilateral and international channels.
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se urged Japan at the U.N. Human Rights Council session last week to admit the sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women committed by Japanese imperial soldiers and make efforts to resolve the humanitarian issue.
In line with this, President Park Geun-hye also refuses to meet with Abe.
However, Wednesday's talks between Korea and Japan's vice foreign ministers mark the first high-ranking official meeting between the two neighbors since Abe's Yasukuni visit, raising hopes for better relations between the two countries.
Experts say that Washington played a role in bringing their Asian allies back to the negotiation table.
Reportedly, the U.S. recently voiced concern to Japan about an attempt to modify the symbolic 1993 statement made by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, which would further strain Korea-Japan relations.
Consequently on Monday, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga at a press conference, reversing its position, said the Japanese government is not planning to modify the so-called 1993 Kono statement but is merely verifying the relative sources used when the statement was drafted.
Washington has long called on Seoul and Tokyo to mend fences as good relations between the neighboring nations are necessary to maintain a strong U.S. presence in East Asia in the face of the rising power of China and provocations from North Korea.
