Park to meet Abe in Japan for first time

President Park Geun-hye

President will hold tripartite summit

By Kang Seung-woo

President Park Geun-hye plans to travel to Japan for a trilateral meeting with her Chinese and Japanese counterparts, according to Lee Joon-gyu, the nominee for Seoul’s ambassador to Tokyo, Wednesday.

This will be Park’s first trip to Japan since her inauguration in 2013. The visit is expected to spur normalization of the ties between the two countries, according to analysts.

This year, Japan holds the rotating chair of the trilateral talks, expected to take place in November following their foreign ministers’ talks in October, according to Japanese media outlets.

“The trilateral talks between Korea, China and Japan are scheduled to be held in the second half of the year in Japan and President Park’s visit for the meeting is expected to play an important role in bettering bilateral relations,” Lee said in a diplomatic forum.

“Both countries need to take advantage of this visit as an opportunity to advance bilateral ties.”

Since taking office in February 2013, President Park has set the Japanese government’s sincerity toward its wartime aggression as a precondition for her to visit Japan as well as hold a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe because of Tokyo’s attempts to whitewash historic wrongdoings, including the sexual enslavement of Korean women before and during World War II.

Last November, Park hosted a trilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Abe here and agreed to hold the event on a regular basis.

“Korea and Japan are taking steps toward normalizing their relations,” said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong Global University

He added that since the two nations reached a deal on the “comfort women” last December, they have shown signs of getting bilateral ties back on track, as evidenced by trilateral coordination with the United States on North Korea’s nuclear threats.

“Amid the positive atmosphere, Park’s visit would be the final step en route to normalizing relations. Following Park’s trip, Abe is likely to make a return visit to Seoul,” Park said.

President Park delayed holding a face-to-face meeting with Abe until November 2015, on the sidelines of the three-way talks.

Diplomatic rudeness

Lee, meanwhile, is drawing flak for making public the head of state’s overseas trip, which is still under negotiations.

“It is an inappropriate announcement given that a summit between Korea and Japan is always a sensitive issue,” said professor Park.

“It is a practice to officially make public the schedule for summits on the given day following intergovernmental arrangements. His premature announcement is irresponsible as a ranking diplomat.”

In addition, there is speculation that China may be displeased with Lee’s disclosure, regarding it as pressing Beijing to begin coordinating the trilateral talks as soon as possible.

According to Japan’s Asahi Shimbun on June 15, China has “no intention of becoming involved in coordinating a trilateral meeting” until after the G-20 summit, scheduled for Sept. 4 to 5 in Hangzhou.

Some analysts predict that China may boycott the annual meeting due to icy relations with Japan, which is on the U.S. side over the South China Sea dispute between Beijing and Washington.