Seoul plans no summit with Tokyo

First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong, left, shakes hands with his Japanese counterpart Akitaka Saiki before holding a meeting at the foreign ministry’s headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap

By Chung Min-uck

Korea will not hold a summit with Japan, unless it offers an “understandable” resolution on wartime wrongdoings, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.

First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong and his Japanese counterpart Akitaka Saiki held talks in Seoul.

Cho raised the issue of Japan’s repeated attempts to deny its wartime atrocities including the sexual enslavement of Korean women.

However, according to a foreign ministry official, Saiki merely reiterated Japan’s fundamental position that his government has declared numerous times that it stands by former administrations’ stance on historical issues.

Saiki offered no new action to be taken by Tokyo to resolve the problem.

The outcome of the talks will make a summit between Korea and Japan an even more remote possibility, observers said.

Reportedly, the Japanese official emphasized the necessity of holding such a meeting in the near future.

Japan’s Asahi Shimbun said that during the vice ministers meeting Saiki would suggest a trilateral summit that includes Washington during a Nuclear Security Summit slated for late March in The Hague.

But Seoul has already made clear its position that no summit will take place with Japan unless the country changes its stance and shows this through concrete action.

Cho told reporters before the meeting, “The correct perception of history should be the foundation of bilateral relations. A summit will happen when that kind of foundation has been laid.”

The vice ministerial meeting drew media attention because it was the first high-level one between the two neighboring countries following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s much-denounced visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in December, which led to the further straining of ties.

“We don’t have any plans for a Korea-Japan summit at this moment,” the ministry spokesman said.

“The Japanese government must first take appropriate action on wartime history issues, including sexual slavery, in a way that is understandable to our people,” he added.

Asked about the steps Japan must take to mend ties, another ministry official said, “Tokyo should not only withdraw its attempts to reverse its previous apologetic attitude but also apologize sincerely to the wartime victims and compensate them where necessary.”

Japan earlier sought to modify a 1993 statement that admitted and apologized for its wartime sexual enslavement of women, mostly Koreans, committed by its imperial army.

during World War II. It recently scrapped the plan after feeling pressure from the rest of the world, particularly its key ally the U.S.

Washington has reportedly also pressed Tokyo to stop its recent nationalist moves for fear that worsening ties with Seoul may impair their trilateral military partnership, a crucial part of America’s “pivot to Asia” foreign policy.

President Park Geun-hye has yet to hold talks with her Japanese counterpart since her inauguration in February 2013 because of Abe’s continued right-wing drive and denial of wartime atrocities.

Japan’s repeated attempts to deny its wartime atrocities have been the major cause of tension, as Korea was one of the major victims of its past imperialism.

Seoul has continuously called on Tokyo to take action to resolve issues related to their shared history if it wants to improve ties, but to no avail.