Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se last week pledged to make strenuous efforts to arrange for a three-way summit among the leaders of South Korea, China and Japan. He said his intention was to “host this trilateral summit at the earliest possible mutually convenient time before the end of this year” when he met with the outgoing secretary-general of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat headquartered in Seoul.

Shigeo Iwatani, a Japanese diplomat who assumed the post in 2013, may not be in a position to say he has done meaningful work during his two-year term. Since the last trilateral summit was held in Beijing in May 2012, the three countries have skipped the meeting due to unrelenting disputes over historical issues and overlapping territorial claims.

Yun agreed with his counterparts from China and Japan to push for an early resumption of the three-way summit that was first held in 2008 when they gathered in Seoul in March.

During his meeting with the outgoing TCS secretary-general, Yun said Seoul would continue to work closely with Tokyo and Beijing to set up the summit, saying “the atmosphere is getting better.”

His remarks reflected Seoul’s intention to make a breakthrough in its frayed ties with Japan and widen the leeway in its pursuit of a strategic balance between the U.S. and China by taking the initiative for the trilateral summit to be held in Seoul this year.

In its response to the statement issued by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, South Korea suggested it would continue to pursue a two-track approach of separating historical disputes with Japan from security and economic cooperation between the two countries.

Abe stopped short of offering his own clear apology over Japan’s pre-1945 wartime atrocities in the statement intended to commemorate the end of World War II, sparking criticism in South Korea and China. In her speech the following day to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan, however, President Park Geun-hye took note of Abe’s pledge that his predecessors’ repentant position “will remain unshakable into the future.”

Park may still feel it improper to hold bilateral summit talks with Abe before the settlement of historical issues, which is unlikely to come as long as Abe refuses to abandon his revisionism. For her, a trilateral summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping would be a proper stage to enable her to circumvent the dilemma. At the summit, Park and Xi could pressure Abe to back up his pledge to inherit the historical perceptions held by the previous cabinets with consistent and sincere actions.

Park is expected to seek Xi’s consent for the three-way meeting if she attends a ceremony to be held in Beijing on Sept. 3 to celebrate China’s victory over Japan in WWII. Last week’s sudden announcement of Park’s trip to Washington in mid-October for summit talks with President Barack Obama was seen by many observers here as calculated to highlight the South Korea-U.S. alliance before she makes public her decision to participate in the Beijing event.

If Park is to set up a meeting with Xi and Abe, she could ease Washington’s dissatisfaction with what it sees as her rigid stance on Tokyo. The U.S. made a positive assessment of the statement by the Japanese leader, who has gone the extra mile to consolidate Tokyo’s alliance with Washington.

The trilateral framework would also allow South Korea to keep in check Japan’s move to improve ties with China while leaving Seoul-Tokyo relations strained. Some diplomatic observers raise the possibility of Abe visiting Beijing to hold summit talks with Xi without attending China’s Victory Day ceremony.

The resumption of the three-way summit would help deter the recalcitrant North Korean regime from making further provocations and thus enhance security and stability on the peninsula.

South Korea is also positioned to play an active role in facilitating negotiations on a free trade agreement involving the three powerful economies, enhancing trilateral cooperation in natural disaster responses and environmental protection and promoting exchanges among the nations’ youth.