Seoul and Washington will likely come to a “crucial agreement” on North Korea during President Park Geun-hye’s visit to the U.S. capital later this year to help shift the regime’s strategic calculations and expedite progress in their nuclear talks, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Thursday.

South Korea’s top diplomat also called on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to seize a “golden opportunity” to tackle persistent international concerns over his revisionist views through a statement to be unveiled in August to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
 

After delaying her planned trip in June to cope with the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak at home, Park is expected to hold a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington in the second half of the year, which will be the “most critical diplomatic event” for Seoul and “another key milestone” for the alliance, Yun said.

“Among the various issues of mutual interest, it all comes down to the North Korean nuclear issue ― how to bring about progress in the issue and achieve sustainable peace on the peninsula,” the minister said at a news conference hosted by the Kwanhun Club, a Seoul-based association of senior journalists.

“The two countries have addressed the issue on presidential and ministerial levels and other occasions, but the leaders will be able to display an advanced, updated common perspective … with which to resolve the nuclear issue while touching on issues on the peninsula and overall northeast Asia.” 


With strained ties with Tokyo being another drawn-out challenge, Seoul remains open to a bilateral summit with Abe, but in order for the meeting to be successful and sustainable, progress should be made on pressing matters such as Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, Yun said.

Following two years of hard-line policy, the Park administration is looking to reconcile with Japan as the two old foes celebrate the 50th anniversary of the normalization of their relationship this year. Park-Abe talks are forecast to take place on the sidelines of a three-way summit involving China later this year in Seoul.

Yet tension is simmering again after Japan attempted to dilute a statement stipulated in a recent UNESCO World Heritage decision that concedes the forcibleness of its mobilization of Korean laborers during colonial rule.

“I think that after all, many worrying views and voices persist such as on the recently upgraded U.S.-Japan defense guidelines or Japan’s envisioned exercise of its right to collective self-defense because there has not been any clear sign coming out of Japan on historical reflection,” Yun said.

“For (Abe), the anniversary statement will provide a golden opportunity to sweep away such concerns and send a good message to the international community given mounting calls for the establishment of the correct history.”

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)