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Korea, Japan, US eye 3-way summit in spring
By Jun Ji-hye
South Korea, the United States and Japan are considering holding a trilateral summit in Washington, D.C. in late March or early April, a Japanese newspaper reported, Sunday.
Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that President Park Geun-hye may sit down with U.S. President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit, scheduled for March 31 to April 1.
The newspaper added that during the summit, the U.S. may confirm its acceptance of a “final and irreversible” agreement on Japan’s sexual slavery of Korean women signed by Seoul and Tokyo.
The report came days after Korea and Japan agreed on Dec. 28 to end a dispute over the latter’s sexual enslavement before and during World War II -- the biggest impediment to improving bilateral relations for years.
In March, 2014, Obama brokered a rapprochement between Japan and Korea, but this ended without any progress being made.
Korea's foreign ministry denied the report.
Meanwhile, the Japanese broadcaster NHK also reported Sunday that talks among the vice foreign ministers of the three countries are expected to take place later this month in Tokyo.
The three sides are currently working on the details of the talks, NHK said, adding that the vice ministers are likely to confirm the Seoul-Tokyo agreement that includes a commitment to call for trilateral cooperation on handling key issues, including North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and other regional security matters.
Issues related to wartime sexual slavery have been the biggest stumbling block for Seoul-Tokyo ties, while hampering the U.S. in bolstering its security alliance with its two East Asian allies.
In the Dec. 28 bilateral agreement, Japan vowed to provide 1 billion yen ($8.3 million) from its national budget to set up a foundation in Seoul and extend aid to surviving victims of wartime sexual slavery in cooperation with the South Korean government.
But criticism is abounding because the two countries failed to mention whether Tokyo bears legal responsibility for the victims.
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