President Park Geun-hye is scheduled to meet the foreign ministers of Korea, China and Japan on Saturday amid escalating tension over tricky diplomatic issues including Washington’s possible deployment of an advanced missile defense asset and a Beijing-led Asian bank.
“Prior to the foreign ministers’ meeting between Korea, China and Japan, (the president) will meet the ministers ― Yun Byung-se (of Korea), Wang Yi (of China) and Fumio Kishida (of Japan),” a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters.
The presidential office did not elaborate on the issues to be discussed during Park’s meeting with the foreign ministers.
The meeting has caught attention as Seoul is deliberating over its decision to participate in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in the face of opposition from the U.S. as well as growing controversy over Washington’s possible dispatch of its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system here.
The presidential office played down the significance of the meeting, saying that it was arranged for foreign ministers to pay a courtesy call to Park before holding a trilateral talk. But expectations are high over what message the South Korean president will deliver to top diplomats of Japan and China, not only on the highly sensitive issues of the AIIB and THAAD, but also on territorial and other historic disputes.
It will be Park’s first meeting with a Japanese foreign minister since she entered office in early 2013.
The diplomatic ties between South Korea and Japan have long been strained by historical and territorial rows.
Park rejected Japanese leader Shinzo Abe’s repeated calls for a summit as Tokyo has refused to face up to its wartime atrocities, such as its sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women during World War II. China and Japan also have been sparring over a territorial dispute involving islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
Later in the afternoon, South Korea, Japan and China are set to hold the first foreign ministers’ meeting in three years.
The talk is aimed at rekindling the momentum for trilateral cooperation over a wide range of regional issues as well as to establish the groundwork for a three-way summit among the leaders of the three countries within the year.
Yun also plans to hold separate meetings with his Japanese and Chinese counterparts on the sidelines of the trilateral talks.
The top Chinese diplomat is expected to press Yun to clarify Seoul’s position over the possible stationing of THAAD, a core asset of the U.S. global multilayered missile shield program, as well as its participation in the AIIB.
Chinese officials expressed their opposition to THAAD as they suspect that the U.S. may consider using the system not only against North Korea but also against other potential adversaries such as China and Russia. Seoul has reiterated its position that there has been “no request” from the U.S., “no consultations” with the ally and “no decision” reached.
The top South Korean diplomat is expected to address the contentious issue of “comfort women” who were forced to sex slavery to Japanese troops during World War II, and urge Tokyo for its apology.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between South Korea and Japan. Park has repeatedly demanded that Japan show a sincere attitude toward historic disputes as a prerequisite for a summit with Abe.
By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)
