South Korean President Says She’s Open to Talks With Japanese Leader

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — President Park Geun-hye of South Korea said Thursday that she was willing to meet one-on-one next month with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, a development that would be welcomed by American officials, who have repeatedly urged Washington’s two key East Asian allies to mend their strained relationship.

Speaking in Washington, where she is scheduled to meet on Friday with President Obama, Ms. Park said that a November meeting in Seoul between herself, Mr. Abe and Premier Li Keqiang of China would provide a chance for her to meet alone with the Japanese leader for the first time.

“I think I can take that opportunity to hold a bilateral summit with Prime Minister Abe,” Ms. Park said while addressing the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington research institute.

Her comment was the clearest indication yet that the two countries were preparing for such a meeting, after months of negotiations. Mr. Abe on Friday reiterated his desire for bilateral meetings with both the Chinese and South Korean leaders, said Takeo Kawamura, a former chief cabinet secretary who is serving as an envoy for Mr. Abe on the issue.

“I’m going to South Korea, and we’re going to do Japan-China and Japan-South Korea,” Mr. Abe said Friday, according to Mr. Kawamura, who spoke to reporters after meeting with the prime minister.

Ties between South Korea and Japan, its former colonizer, have been strained for years, largely over issues rooted in their painful history. The United States is eager for them to improve the relationship, especially given the anxiety in the region over China’s growing assertiveness and North Korea’s nuclear arms program.

Mr. Abe had previously expressed interest in meeting with Ms. Park, but until Thursday she had seemed cool to the idea. She has met several times with President Xi Jinping of China, however, raising concern in Washington that South Korea might be drawing closer to Beijing.

South Korea has said that for a meeting with Mr. Abe to be possible, Japan must take steps toward what Seoul regards as proper atonement for its history during World War II and the preceding decades — particularly the recruitment of Korean and other women to work in military-run brothels, which many historians say involved coercion. Seoul has complained that under Mr. Abe, Japan has played down state responsibility for the abuses suffered by those women, often referred to euphemistically as comfort women.

Ms. Park reiterated that condition on Thursday, saying that for a meeting with Mr. Abe to be “meaningful,” Japan should “help ease the agony” of those women, 47 of whom she said were still alive in South Korea.

Japan has argued that the issue was settled half a century ago in a treaty that normalized relations with South Korea. Many Japanese, especially nationalist politicians and activists, say South Korea is being unreasonable in repeatedly demanding apologies that they feel Japan has already offered for its World War II deeds.

No date has been announced for the meeting between Ms. Park, Mr. Abe and Mr. Li, but Ms. Park said Thursday that it would be held in Seoul in early November. Japan, South Korea and China began holding annual, trilateral meetings among high-ranking officials in 2008, but they were suspended after the 2012 meeting amid flaring regional tensions, notably over a dispute between Japan and China over islands in the East China Sea. The three countries agreed earlier this year to resume the meetings by the end of 2015.

「歐朴會」在美登場 朴槿惠願會日相安倍

南韓總統朴槿惠十六日在白宮與美國總統歐巴馬舉行峰會，雙方就北韓非核化發表共同聲明。前一日，朴槿惠鬆口說中日韓高峰會下月初在首爾舉行，屆時可與日本首相安倍晉三舉行雙邊會談，但慰安婦問題要能取得進展，會談才有意義。安倍則在東京表示，日韓雙邊會談「一定會實現」，可能安排在十月底。分析家認為，朴槿惠語調軟化可能與美國施壓有關。

朴槿惠十三日起訪美四天，十六日會見美國總統歐巴馬，並於會後舉行聯合記者會。朴十五日上午赴國防部會見部長卡特，中午前往副總統拜登官邸出席午宴，下午在智庫「戰略暨國際研究中心」演講。

朴槿惠指出，美韓自貿協定可推動區域貿易自由化風潮，她並對上周達成結論的跨太平洋夥伴協定表示歡迎。在被問到是否願與安倍舉行峰會時，她表示中日韓三邊會議定十一月一日在首爾舉行，是三年多來首場三邊會議。她接著說，她可以會見安倍，但會談要能促使兩國發展面向未來的關係才有意義，而南韓國民十分關切慰安婦問題，只有在這個問題上能取得進展，會談才有意義。

這是朴槿惠首次公開提及日韓峰會，慰安婦問題是她一直不跟安倍對話的障礙。對此，日本媒體引述官方人士的話指出：「要交出解決方案不可能，高層見面不開條件的原則不會動搖」。日本外相岸田文雄說，首相已表示盼望能與朴大統領會談，直接對話很重要。安倍十六日與前官房長官河村建夫午餐時透露，會談可能於十月卅一日舉行。

日本媒體分析，朴槿惠釋出善意，是因南韓是三方會談主辦國，她不願讓國際社會認為日韓關係倒退，且南韓國會議員與美國都要求兩國對話，以利處理北韓問題。南韓慶南大學國際關係專家金勤植認為，朴槿惠在白宮施壓下妥協。

另外，日本防衛相中谷元訂廿日訪問南韓會見南韓國防部長韓民求，說明日本新通過的安保法，尋求韓方理解，並為兩國峰會鋪路。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/17/world/asia/south-korea-japan-summit-park-geun-hye-shinzo-abe.html

2015-10-17．聯合報．A17．國際．華盛頓記者賴昭穎、東京記者雷光涵、編譯陳韻涵