Park, Kim and Abe

By Andrew Salmon

Prior to visiting Europe, President Park Geun-hye granted interviews to British and French media.

She would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "at any time," she told Le Figaro. While "trustpolitik" was central to her North Korea policy, she told the BBC, Pyongyang had proven "unwilling to keep even the most basic promises." Nevertheless, she added, "We'll keep the door to dialog open and continue our efforts to build trust."

Good. Here is a leader with a pragmatic understanding of unpleasant realities, who nevertheless offers an olive branch; very statesmanlike.

The BBC then asked the president about Japan.

Speaking with apparent emotion, she raised the "comfort women" issue, asserting that "none of these cases have been resolved or addressed." She went on to ask: If the Japanese "continue to say there is no need for an apology and no need to acknowledge their past wrongdoings," what good would a summit do?

Well, there are excellent reasons to summit with Tokyo beyond discussing the events of some 70 years past. Japan is the world's third largest economy ― and back in growth mode. The EU and US support an expanded political/strategic role for Japan globally. Japan is also the world's largest hallyu market, and as previous Korean presidents met Japanese prime ministers, I am unsure what is behind Park's hard-line stance.

Surely she knows that her late father signed a 1965 treaty with Japan that included agreed-upon monetary compensation for colonial rule? True, Park Sr. used that money to fund economic projects rather than compensate colonial-era victims, but that cannot be blamed upon Tokyo

Surely too, she knows that Japan (from the emperor on downward) has issued some 50 apologies?

And the comfort women? Surely she knows that de jure, these were covered by the 1965 agreement, but Tokyo, mindful of the de facto emotiveness of this atrocity, created the Asian Women's Fund in 1995, gathering monies from across Japanese society to pay compensation to survivors.

It was rejected by South Korea on the grounds that the fund, sourced from both public and private money, was not governmental redress.

Given that the fund was raised by the Japanese government - and compensation packages included a signed letter from the Japanese prime minister stating his "most sincere apologies and remorse" to every recipient ― that rejection is puzzling.

President Park is intelligent and well-informed. Even though vernacular media do not broadcast the above facts widely, she cannot be ignorant of them.

Does she truly expect every Japanese to hold a "correct" view of history? Surely not: There are, indeed, ultra-nationalists in Japan, and even a historical textbook that whitewashes past aggression (albeit, it is reportedly used in under 0.5 percent of Japanese schools.) And even in Germany, which Korea endlessly touts as an example to Japan, there are neo-Nazis and unrepentant veterans.

Is the prime minister the problem? In fact, "ultranationalist" Shinzo Abe has defied expectations in Korean media that he would visit the Yasukuni Shrine or revise a 1993 official apology for historical misdeeds.

Conversely, Abe has repeatedly expressed his wish for a summit ― most recently while meeting Korean lawmakers ― and even attempted friendliness: In their brief Bali conversation, he told Park how much he enjoyed Korean cuisine. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, his wife is also fascinated by Korean culture.)

Kim has made no such gestures. Moreover, Pyongyang has never apologized for the Korean War ― which killed more Koreans in three years than colonization did in three-and-a-half decades ― nor for recent threats and attacks.

A greater irony is that the 21st century Asian nation most resembling militant Japan ― with its god-like emperor; its prioritization of its military; its ultra-nationalistic ideology and its disregard for human rights ― is not contemporary Japan, it is contemporary North Korea.

Yet Park is open to meeting Kim while rejecting Abe's diplomatic overtures. This irks Washington. High-profile Americans including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Senator John McCain have urged Korea to move beyond the colonial past ― to no avail.

What is going on? Is Park deliberately tilting toward China?

Perhaps, but this need not preclude good relations with Japan. Seoul's concurrent friendly ties with Beijing and Washington prove that diplomacy is not an "either-or" proposition.

Or is Park fearful that a gesture toward Tokyo will remind domestic left wingers of her father's Japanophilia, and use that against her in Korea's emotive public discourse? If so, she is sacrificing international statesmanship to national populism.

In summary: The president is refusing to meet the leader of a changed nation, which has paid compensation for and apologized for past wrongdoings, while offering to meet the leader of an unchanged nation that has done neither, and which remains aggressive toward this republic.

This smacks of a double standard.

Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk.