SEOUL—The leaders of South Korea and Japan broke an extended diplomatic freeze Monday with a rare summit at which they agreed to push for a swift resolution of historical disputes that have tainted ties for decades.
In particular, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said they would step up efforts to settle the thorny issue of the so-called Korean “comfort women” forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II.
It was their first ever one-on-one meeting. Park previously rebuffed all summit proposals, arguing that Tokyo had yet to properly atone for its wartime past and 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.
While it was never likely to mend all the many broken fences between the two neighbous, the summit was seen as an important step towards a more pragmatic partnership less encumbered by decades of rancor and bitterness.
Park began the meeting by stressing the need to “heal the wounds of the past” and the presidential Blue House said their talks did not shy away from tough issues.
“The two leaders agreed to speed up consultations to try to resolve the comfort women question as quickly as possible,” the Blue House said, adding that Park had referred to the issue as the “biggest stumbling block” to friendly relations.
While Abe offered no new apology for Japan’s wartime past, he told reporters afterwards that both sides had an obligation to “not leave obstacles for future generations”.
Japan maintains that the comfort women issue was settled in a 1965 normalization agreement, which saw Tokyo make a total payment of $800 million in grants or loans to its former colony.
The summit capped a series of moves in recent weeks—prompted and pushed by their mutual military ally the United States—to normalize relations.
Park met Abe as he arrived at the Blue House and the two smiled as they shook hands before the talks began.
It was a contrast to the previous meetings between the two at multilateral events which had been studies in unsmiling, stony indifference, especially on Park’s part.
Since taking office in February 2013, Park has taken a particularly strong line on the issue of compensation for Korean comfort women.
It has been a politically popular stance in South Korea where Abe remains extremely unpopular, amid suspicions that he wants to water down Tokyo’s past apologies for its wartime aggression.