South Korea has offered Japan a long-awaited leadership summit, which would mark a major conciliatory step towards improving relations between the two countries.
South Korea has proposed a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Park Geun-Hye on the sidelines of a trilateral leadership meeting being held with China in Seoul next week.
"We have made a proposal to hold the summit on November 2, but have not heard from Japan yet," a spokeswoman for the presidential Blue House says.
If the summit goes ahead, it will cap a series of moves in recent weeks by Seoul and Tokyo towards a rapprochement – prompted and pushed by their mutual military ally, the United States.
Relations between the two neighbours have been clouded by sensitive, historical disputes related to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula and, in particular, the issue of Korean "comfort women" forcibly recruited to work in Japanese wartime military brothels.
Since taking office in February 2013, Park has repeatedly refused to meet one-on-one with Abe, arguing that Tokyo has yet to properly atone for its past actions.
The rift has frustrated Washington, which would prefer its two key Asian allies to focus together on containing an increasingly assertive China.
AFP
