Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
Japan favorable to trilateral summit
By Jun Ji-hye
Japan is showing a favorable response to President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping’s proposal to hold a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in late October or early November.
Park and Xi reached the agreement during their summit in Beijing, Wednesday.
A high-ranking official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the Nihon Geizai Shimbun, Thursday, “Japan welcomes the decision.” The ministry expressed its will to cooperate so the trilateral meeting can take place at the earliest possible date, the newspaper added.
The response was apparently issued because of Japan’s sense of relief that Park and Xi refrained from attacking Tokyo for its wartime wrongdoings during their summit.
At the beginning of the summit, Xi signaled that the two leaders would talk about the history issue, saying “The two nations fought against the invasion and occupation of Imperialism. Eventually, the two achieved liberation by fighting for their lives.”
But no more mention about the matter was made.
China has been at odds with Japan over historical and territorial issues. But from Japan’s point of view, Xi’s agreement about having the trilateral meeting can be construed as his will not to call into question Abe’s statement made on the anniversary of the end of World War II, in which he failed to offer a direct apology for Japan’s atrocities during the war.
Observers say it would be difficult for the three leaders to make progress in resolving history and territorial issues during the trilateral meeting, but there is no reason for Abe to reject the meeting, as an ongoing conflict with his neighbors has been cited as a weakness.
NHK and the Mainichi Shimbun also reported that Park attempted to balance her diplomacy between China and Japan by detailing the schedule of the trilateral meeting.
Japan’s economic daily Nikkei quoted an official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry as saying, “If Prime Minister Abe visits Korea for the three-way talks, the Seoul-Tokyo bilateral meeting would be achieved for sure.”
Park has said that Japan should first show a responsible attitude on the issue of former Korean sex slaves for Japan’s soldiers during the war before a Seoul-Tokyo summit takes place.
Should the three-way meeting be fixed, Korea will host the talks because Seoul was supposed to hold them in 2013. The last three-way summit was held during May 2012, but the three countries’ foreign ministers talked about the issue during their meeting in Seoul in March.
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