S Korea, Japan, U.S. leaders to meet at The Hague: Nikkei

Good news. Hopefully we can start looking and moving in the right direction.

Meeting statement: progress was made we are moving forward to wards a position that is further than before with the issues now being more cleare than before we will go away with more than we came with.

i highly doubt that this summit will achieve anything. neither leader will want to bend and look ineffectual to their right-wing constituents.

Just agreeing to meet is very big progress, indeed.

Abe tableing review of Kono Statement, then backing down has given Park enough face and credibility to agree to a trilateral summit. Previously, Park wouldn't even set down criteria for agreeing to meet.

Just agreeing to meet is very big progress, indeed

not really, its only Washington Pressure and that won't last even for few days.

Hopefully, Shinzo's wish comes true. He's been begging to meet her for long time.

Shinzo, good luck.

Well, looks like Abe deliberately started by placating the nationalists and now he is doing the right things to get Japan back on board internationally. That's great. Let's see how much he will do to steer Japan on the right track! Good luck to Abe and hope he does not spoil it all by visiting Yasukuni again.

Hongo: "Then again, on the Japanese side of the table you have a chap whose grandfather was a non-indicted Class A war criminal. He is facing off against the daughter of a ruthless dictator who by rights should have ended up in jail for slaughtering college students. Both of them have developed a solid track record of pandering to the bleating of reactionary right wing lunatics in their own countries. Moreover, both have displayed endemic amnesia when it comes to historical fact"

I completely agree with you. It's on both to kiss and make up, though I very, very highly doubt they would actually mean it if they did. Abe will forever deny what has happened in Japan's past, and Kim will continue to demand he do actually recognize it and not be satisfied with apologies until he does.

It's a good thing the US pressured Abe into not changing or rescinding the landmark apology, though, or this would not be happening to begin with. You can bet there are going to be a lot of backroom talks and possibly deals going on here. The US needs both these countries very much in terms of military locations, and it needs them to get along. With how critical a lot of nations have been with Abe on Yasukuni and comfort women, I'd say Japan will get the sterner talking to, though.

No reason to meet Park. She has proven herself to be a virulent hater of Japan.

In her own words; "what purpose would a summit serve? Perhaps it would be better not to have one."

I can agree with that.

Be nice if Japan and South Korea can manage to patch things up. There would be absolutely no downside to it for either country.

hidingout: "No reason to meet Park. She has proven herself to be a virulent hater of Japan."

Actually, the true haters of Japan have proven to be Abe and his supporters. Never were things as bad, since WWII, between the nations than when he took the helm (again) and started proposing all the hate he has proposed. That IN TURN caused the expected reaction that would allow people like yourself to try and justify what he wanted to do in the first place. Hate Kim all you want, hidingout, but you can't hate her for calling a spade a spade. All the US can say to SK is to 'get along'. It has heaps it can say to Japan though when it comes to not instigating fights.

Never were things as bad, since WWII, between the nations than when he took the helm (again) and started proposing all the hate he has proposed.

smith,

Do you think perhaps you could lower the level of hyperbole and give some examples of 'all the hate' Abe has proposed?

Way to go!

It’s true that such summit if indeed takes place; it would a small step on a long Journey to achieve substantial results between Japan and S.K, but it can be a turning point for Abe’s foreign policy.

You see, when Abe makes a serious effort (dropping his revisionist’s agenda), S.K responds positively. It proves that peace intent is contagious.

For next step, Abe can follow Washington’s repeated advice and tone down his nationalistic rhetoric and create a productive environment for solving the bitterly contested islets dispute with Japan’s bigger neighbor.

Increasing Japan’s defense budget and modifying Japan’s constitution may neither remove the hatred nor win a war in long run, but something else may accomplish both if Japan has a prudent and articulated leader.

Don't hold your breath on this. My prediction is Abe or some other politician will say or do something stupid again in short time, and the meeting will be canceled. Then the Japanese and Japanese media will cry foul and shake their fists in anger at "uncooperative" S.Korea.

Let's hope Park goes in with an open mind instead of the usual anti Japan mindset.

Wouldn't hold my breath though.

@oldman_13 "Wouldn't hold my breath though."

Be positive please, No one thinks reviving the relationship between Japan and S.K would a piece of cake. But, someone gotta do something to start the process. If no one gives a try, the answer would be always a “no”.

Now, at least there is possibility for us to be hopful.

Imagine that - a simple acknowledgement has begun a thaw.

Does anyone still need proof that denials of past wrongs by the Old Boys Club cause more hassles than they are worth?

' Time for the US to cut it's loses and let North Korea do what the South wants it to do, overrun it'

Let me get that straight, you believe that South Korea wants to be overrun by the North? The mind boggles.

More circle jerks organized by America? The euphoria will be short lived and the occasion a non-event.

StrangerlandMar. 20, 2014 - 09:46PM JST Does anyone still need proof that denials of past wrongs by the Old Boys Club cause more hassles than they are >worth?

Does anyone still need proof that JAPAN HAS APOLOGIZED for the comfort women? South Korea can drop the Japan bashing and their government can apologize to the survivors and pay them they money they received from Japan in 1965.

I hope that the summit leads to a warmer relationship in between Japan and Korea.

To all the haters - Wait and see how the summit plays out before you start spewing hate.

You actually believe that President Park's government will enter these meeting with the best of intensions?

I believe that until Abe made his statement last week, she was refusing to meet with him, and now she is going to meet with him. I don't expect that she will go the exact opposite extreme and give him whatever he wants no matter what he asks, but I believe that this is a step in the right direction, as compared to the many steps in the wrong direction Japan has taken as of recent.

Does anyone still need proof that JAPAN HAS APOLOGIZED for the comfort women?

One apology - one step forward. One denial - one step back.

Finally these three countries will discuss a lot of important issues. We have to wait the meetings.

Good, it's about time SK and Japan stopped with the vitriol and had a reasonable conversation, even if the US has to moderate.

This is NOT Abe's acknowledgement to Victims suffering but only a sign he is standing down for now from further disparaging victims claim in order to avoid growing sentiment in US and Europe against him.

why not just do a Skype conference call?

Looks like both Korean Govt and Japanese Govt are sincere in talking with USA Govt representative. They will talk important issues both countries face in 21st Century. Abe has been too busy out of Japan and now he will meet South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Next will be with China and Japan.

Nothing will happen between the two Asian leaders. BO is just showcasing that he is still in charge of all the little Asian allies.

StrangerlandMar. 21, 2014 - 12:05AM JST "Does anyone still need proof that JAPAN HAS APOLOGIZED for the comfort women? "

One apology - one step forward. One denial - one step back.

If you read the article the J-govt did not deny or step back. Unless you use every comment made by anybody in Japan as the equivalent of a national statemen, your comment makes no sense at all. .

JimizoMar. 20, 2014 - 11:46PM JST This summit could be a way forward but your thinking seems to be based on the world view in the days of Stalin and Chairman Mao. Japan and South Korea need to move forward. I'd advise you to do the same.

We will see how forward this gets anyone after the Summit. BTW South Korea is only going to this summit because of two reasons, one the US is forcing them to go. And second President Park was outmaneuvered by Prime Minister Abe recently and her anti-Japan position has been weakened. So she has to go.

Hm, knowing how easily some folks get confused I best elaborate.

Recently Japan used the Kono apology as bait to trap President Park. She bit at the bait which she thought was another Japanese blunder, jumped all over Japan on the world stage. But, the trap was sprung when Prime Minister Abe said his government wont revise the Kono apology.

President Park's government had no choice but to go. But, if you think that President Park is going to this summit with the best of intension then you are sadly mistaken.

But, being as open minded as I am, if after this summit President Park agrees to a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Abe and the meeting actually happens, I will admit I was wrong.

Now, if things don't get better, will you admit you were wrong?

JimizoMar. 20, 2014 - 11:46PM JST @JoeBigs Your fevered imagination of reds under the beds is John Birch Society nuttiness.

All you could come up with was the JBS? Come come, one doesn't have to be a raving Far Right winger to hold total disdain for Communism and it's anti-Democratic stance.

Communism promotes fear, hatred, envy, censored newspapers, suspicion, torture, cramped jails and mass graves.

JimizoMar. 20, 2014 - 11:46PM JST Your world of commies and commie sympathisers belongs to a different era.

You actually believe that Communism is now a stuffed teddy sitting in the corner, how naïve.

Communism is alive and well and being promoted by the very nations that you seem to think is not Communist. This will come as a shock to you by what I am about to say....But, the Communist Party of China is (soft drumroll) Communist!

You must be in disbelief by these words and you might even deny them, but it's the truth. Communist China is promoting Communism in a new light. Gone are the drab green Mao outfits and in are the new Armani suits. But, this doesn't change the fact that they are Communist. You can put a sheep's fleece on a wolf, but that doesn't mean he stops being a wolf.

Communism is alive and well and Document Number 9 clearly proves that.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/08/27/document-no-9-the-party-attacks-western-democratic-ideals/

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/120601/confucius-institute

http://www.thenation.com/article/176888/china-u#

JimizoMar. 20, 2014 - 11:46PM JST You accused Smith of hatred but your posts regarding South Korea ( not a communist country last time I checked and nor does it want to be as far as any sane people can gather ) and China are far in excess of anything he says.

My disdain for what South Korea is doing is based on their hypocrisy and the willingness by some to defend that hypocrisy. One doesn't have to be filed with hatred to dislike hypocrisy, one just have an open mind.

Now, as to your assumption that South Korea isn't Communist, well you are sort of correct. But, if you believe that there aren't Communist elements within the South Korean government there you are mistaken.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/23/world/infiltrator-sub-s-captain-is-killed-in-south-korea.html

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1329421/north-korean-spies-enter-south-korea-posing-defectors-says-lawmaker

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/2637722/North-Korean-honey-trap-spy-caught.html

http://www.systemiccapital.com/s-korea-cracksdown-on-communist-sympathizers/