Sunday, November 1, 2015

Just Meeting Is An Accomplishment

This weekend's meeting in Seoul between the leaders of China, Japan, and South Korea is "a good start - but only a start." These three nations' economies are interdependent, they all struggle with the regional issue of air pollution, and they all have high energy needs. These are a few of the shared common concerns, and they signal future meetings.

Before Japanese PM Shinzo Abe arrived in Seoul, Chinese and South Korean artists revealed the  bronze statues of two young girls - one Chinese, on Korean - in Seoul park, which symbolized the tens of thousands of Chinese and Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during WWII. Although Japan says the issue of sex slavery was settled in 1965 treaty, citizens in South Korea haven't forgotten the issue and are pressing for more apologies. This issue will be lingering this weekend during the meeting, especially since Korea and Japan are longtime rivals and have failed to find a "bridge of remorse." The U.S. expects Abe and South Korean President Park Guen-hye to meet one-on-one finally, since it has yet to happen.

Upasna Barath

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/10/31/452765519/for-china-japan-and-s-korea-just-meeting-is-an-accomplishment

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