President Park Geun-hye appears to have gained an upper hand on the Northeast Asian diplomatic stage with the proposal of a summit meeting of the leaders of Korea, China and Japan.

The proposal was made in Myanmar on Nov. 13 during the ASEAN Plus Three summit. Only a few days earlier, Park seemed to be at risk of diplomatic isolation as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shook hands at a summit meeting in Beijing on the sidelines of the APEC summit. When the Blue House team could not confirm a summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and Park until the last minute, there were concerns that the U.S. was not too pleased with Park’s enthusiastic support of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, a regional free trade initiative led by China that is in competition with the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, which locks out China.

To her credit, Park took a proactive approach, proposing a trilateral summit. She took the cue from Xi, who on Nov. 10 emphasized the need for a meeting between the foreign ministers of Korea, China and Japan, and proposed a trilateral summit to follow the foreign ministers’ meeting. The three countries had held annual summit meetings since 2008 but none has taken place since May 2012 following the territorial dispute between China and Japan that erupted over the Senkaku Islands, or the Diaoyu Islands, as they are called in Chinese; the deterioration of Korea-Japan relations over the Dokdo Islets; and the military sexual slavery issue. Japanese leaders’ visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which houses Class-A war criminals, continues to irk Japan’s neighbors.

The meeting of foreign ministers of the three countries will take place in December or January and a trilateral summit may follow the next month. Whether a bilateral summit between Park and Abe can also be realized is still uncertain, although it is possible that it could take the same form as the Xi-Abe summit in Beijing on the sidelines of the APEC summit. Park, as the host of the trilateral summit, would have to meet bilaterally with Abe, if so asked.

The economies of the three Northeast Asian neighbors are closely integrated, and their historical animosities and territorial disputes notwithstanding, they need to get along. The current state of affairs is an anomaly that should not be allowed to continue much longer.

The ball is now in Japan’s court. There’s a lot riding on what Japan decides to do in the coming month. Abe welcomed the summit proposal and China said it values cooperation among the three countries.

In working toward the trilateral summit and a possible bilateral summit with Abe, Park should not give the impression that she may yield her stance on Japan’s military sexual slavery. She has so far rejected Abe’s requests for a summit, insisting that the issue of the former military sex slaves must be resolved before the two can meet, but she must now exercise diplomatic finesse.

The trilateral summit could be an impetus for Abe to resolve the issue once and for all. Instead of denying history, Abe and his government should look squarely at history. Without owning up to history, there can be no real progress and the region will continue to be weighed down by its past.