Park, Abe agree on working-level meetings

By Kang Seung-woo

President Park Geun-hye held discussions Monday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the first time in eight months, according to a presidential spokesman.

The leaders of the neighboring nations attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Beijing and sat beside one another at a dinner hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“The heads of state agreed to encourage the continuation of bilateral director general talks aimed at resolving the issue of the comfort women and moving forward,” presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook said at a briefing.

Since taking office in February last year, Park has been reluctant to speak with the hawkish premier due to the Japanese government’s right leaning policies and actions.

Park last sat down with Abe during a trilateral summit in March organized by U.S. President Barack Obama in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II perpetrated by the Japanese imperial army is a sticking point currently blocking the two leaders from agreeing to meet because the Abe government refuses to fully acknowledge the extent of such war crimes.

In order to break the lengthy diplomatic impasse, Seoul and Tokyo have held director general-level talks since April, but without any results.

The spokesman added that Park and Abe also discussed a variety of pending issues between the two nations, but did not elaborate on details of the encounter.

Although Cheong Wa Dae didn’t explain, there is speculation that the two leaders talked about mutual interests such as North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and the global economic downturn as well as their soured ties.

Abe, who also held his first summit with Xi on the same day, has been calling for a summit with Park, but her administration refused to hold one, urging the Japanese government to demonstrate its remorse about subjecting Korean women to sexual slavery.

The unscheduled meeting came amid speculation that South Korea may be isolated on the diplomatic stage in Northeast Asia following a Japan-China summit and the North’s release of two Americans after a visit to Pyongyang by U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

“The meeting can be seen as a positive sign en route to improving bilateral relations between Korea and Japan,” said Jin Chang-soo, director of the Japan Center at the Sejong Institute.

“As a follow-up measure, Korea needs to express its stance through a foreign ministers’ meeting.”

During a summit Monday, Park and Xi concurred on the need to hold a trilateral meeting of foreign ministers from Korea, Japan and China before the end of the year.

However, he said that the first summit talks between the two countries would not take place anytime soon.

“If Abe pulls off extending his rule after a possible general election next fall, he may step up efforts to resolve the issue of comfort women for a one-on-one meeting with Park,” he said.