Seoul offers summit with Japan on Nov. 2

Park Geun-hye

By Kang Seung-woo

Korea has proposed holding a summit between President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Nov. 2 in Seoul, Cheong Wa Dae said, Monday.

However, Japan has yet to respond to the offer.

“We are waiting for Japan’s response to our proposal,” a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters.

Japan’s NHK also reported Friday that officials of the Korean and Japanese governments are arranging their first one-on-one meeting between Park and Abe and it could be held on Nov. 2.

Abe and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang plans to visit Seoul later this week to attend a three-way meeting ― the first in three years ― and Park plans to hold a bilateral meeting with them on the sidelines of the trilateral framework.

The three nations have agreed to resume the talks to warm icy relations among the nations over territorial and historical disputes, but the three sides are still in negotiations over the meeting schedule.

During her trip to Washington, D.C. earlier this month, President Park said that she is open to a summit with Abe, adding that Japan must make progress in its efforts to resolve the long-running issue of comfort women forced to serve as sexual slaves by the Japanese army before and during World War II.

According to Park’s office, the President will also sit down with Li on Saturday after the Chinese prime minister arrives here earlier in the day and they will discuss not only the bilateral relations but also issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia and a shared global agenda.

Li’s visit to Korea will help further develop bilateral relations between Korea and China, and will also help “promote regional peace and prosperity,” said China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying during Monday’s briefing.

According to the Chinese foreign ministry, China and Japan are also arranging a meeting between Li and Abe in Seoul.