Cheong Wa Dae remained cautious over rising speculation that the leaders of South Korea and Japan would meet for a summit in the foreseeable future following their emphasis on cooperation a day earlier while marking the 50th anniversary of normalization of ties.

“The relations between Korea and Japan have taken a step forward on the occasion of yesterday’s events … but this does not mean that the every pending issue is resolved. … Improving the relationship cannot happen overnight,” a Cheong Wa Dae official said on condition of anonymity.

“From our point of view, the most important thing is (for Japan) to resolve the past,” the official said.

On Monday, Park attended a reception hosted by the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to mark the anniversary. In a reciprocal move, Abe also attended a similar event hosted by the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo.

Park has shunned a summit with Abe since taking office in 2013 due to frayed ties over their shared history, particularly over Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women.

South Korea and Japan have long been in conflict over territory and other historical disputes stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea demands Japan acknowledge state responsibility for the war crime, while Japan insists the issue was settled under the normalization treaty of 1965. Only 50 South Korean survivors remain.

Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said in a parliamentary session conditions must be ripe for a summit between Park and Abe.

Hwang said it’s important to make sure that South Korea and Japan can hold a summit based on trust and that the diplomatic functions could serve as an important occasion to resolve the issue of sex slaves.

Later in the day, South Korea and Japan held a third round of talks Tuesday to settle their dispute over Tokyo’s bid to win UNESCO World Heritage status for its industrial facilities linked to Korean slave labor.

Choi Jong-moon, ambassador for cultural and UNESCO affairs, was set to meet with his counterpart, Jun Shimmi, the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s director general for cultural affairs, in Tokyo later in the day, spokesman Noh Kwang-il said in a press briefing.

Japan has applied to list 23 industrial facilities, including seven sites where nearly 60,000 Koreans were forced to work as slave laborers, mostly in the 1940s when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule.

South Korea demands that Japan reveal such history in UNESCO records.

The talks come ahead of a meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany, set for June 28-July 8, during which the 21 member nations, including South Korea and Japan, are expected to make a final decision on the bid.

Meanwhile, the United States on Monday welcomed the rare celebrations that Park and Abe attended to mark half a century of relations, saying it looks forward to the relations getting “broader and deeper.”

Though the celebrations fell short of a direct meeting between the two leaders, they underlined the willingness of both sides to improve their relations.

“We certainly welcome their agreement to participate in those events. ... We more broadly welcome efforts to improve the bilateral relationship between Japan and Korea,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a regular press briefing.

“I think it’s an important step that they’ve agreed to attend this commemoration together. That President Park is willing to go and do that, I think that’s not insignificant,” he said. “And certainly, should that lead to better relations, better cooperation, better dialogue between the two, that’s always welcome too. ... Certainly we look forward to that relationship getting broader and deeper.”

In a separate statement, a department spokesman also said that the U.S. congratulates the two countries on their 50th anniversary of relations and welcomes efforts by Park and Abe “to commemorate the anniversary in a positive spirit.”

“We believe that strong and constructive relations between countries in the region promote peace and stability and are in their interests and in the interests of the United States,” the official said.

Frayed relations between the two allies have been a key cause for concern for the U.S. as it seeks to bolster three-way security cooperation, seen as a key pillar of U.S. President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia” initiative aimed in part at keeping a rising China in check.

From news reports (khnews@heraldcorp.com)