S. Korea proposes summit talks with Japan

SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea proposed a summit meeting with Japan on the sidelines of a trilateral summit in Seoul next week that also includes China, said a presidential official on Monday. Park is set to host the leaders of China and Japan in what could be the resumption of a trilateral summit among the three neighbors in three years. South Korea has offered Nov. 2 as the date of the summit talks between President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "We are waiting for Japan's response," the Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters. The bilateral summit, if held, would be the first time that Park will meet with Abe one-on-one since taking office in early 2013. Park has so far shunned bilateral talks with Abe due to his apparent refusal to acknowledge Japan's responsibility for its past atrocities, including the Japanese military's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II. Separately, Park is set to meet with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday on the sidelines of the upcoming trilateral summit, said the official. Li plans to arrive in Seoul on Saturday for a three-day trip. "The two leaders are expected to exchange opinions on how to develop relations between the two countries and various issues surrounding the region, including the Korean Peninsula, as well as international issues," said the official. In Beijing, China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also told reporters a bilateral meeting between Li and Abe is being arranged as well. "China, Japan and South Korea are major economies and important countries of the region," Hua said, noting trilateral cooperation has delivered tangible benefits to the people of the three countries. "In recent years, due to reasons known to all, such cooperation met obstacles," Hua said, referring to tensions between China and Japan. A trilateral summit has not been held since May 2012 due to a territorial dispute between China and Japan, as well as Japan's attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities and colonial occupation. Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910-45 and controlled much of China in the early part of the 20th century. Park has repeatedly pressed Japan to resolve the issue of the elderly Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japan's World War II soldiers -- one of the knottiest issues between the two neighbors. The issue of sex slaves has gained urgency as the victims are dying off. In 2007, more than 120 South Korean victims were alive, but the number has since dropped to 47, with their average age standing at nearly 90. (END)