Abe Resolves to Hold Summits with China, S. Korea

Tokyo, Oct. 16 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday expressed his resolve to hold bilateral meetings with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Park Geun-hye on the sidelines of a three-way summit slated for early November in Seoul. "I'll do (the bilateral summits) without fail," Abe told Takeo Kawamura, former chief cabinet secretary and current secretary-general of a suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers promoting exchanges between Japan and South Korea, when they met at Abe's office. When Kawamura questioned whether the meetings with Li and Park have been fixed, Abe replied that he would definitely meet them on a one-on-one basis. After his meeting with the prime minister, Kawamura told reporters that he wishes Abe success in the talks on pending issues such as so-called comfort women, mainly Koreans, who were forced to serve as prostitutes for Japanese troops before and during World War II. In Washington on Thursday, Park said it would be possible to hold her first one-on-one talks with Abe on the sidelines of the trilateral summit. Park also expressed hopes for progress over the comfort women issue in her first direct comment in public on the possibility of holding a meeting with Abe. Until now, no one-on-one meeting has been held between Abe and Park, who took office in December 2012 and February 2013, respectively, chiefly due to history issues. But a Japanese Foreign Ministry executive said, "It is impossible for Japan to make any concession" on the comfort women issue. Japan's position is that the issue was resolved in a bilateral agreement concluded in 1965 when the two countries normalized diplomatic relations and that humanitarian measures have been taken, including a government-backed fund for former comfort women. "Our position has been conveyed to South Korea," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. To China, Japan has protested over UNESCO's listing of records related to the 1937 Nanjing incident on the Memory of the World Register as recommended by Beijing. Another key issue between the two is the Japanese-administered islands of Senkaku in the East China Sea, which are also claimed by China. At the expected meeting with Li, Abe is seen discussing these issues while confirming that the two countries will continue recent general moves to improve their relations. END