President Park Geun-hye (left) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pose for a photo ahead of their bilateral summit in Vientiane, Laos, on Sept. 7. The two leaders discussed cooperation measures in the face of North Korean nuclear weapons and boosted bilateral relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held summit talks in the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Sept. 7. The two leaders agreed to work together closely on North Korean nuclear weapons issues and to make advancements in the Korea-Japan relationship.
As cooperation among South Korea, Japan and the U.S. helped the U.N. adopt a press statement regarding Pyongyang’s ballistic missiles on Sept. 5, the two leaders agreed to work with the U.S. in order to more effectively respond to North Korea’s provocations, including possible additional provocations from Pyongyang.
“We need to use various measures to put pressure on North Korea, such as the faithful implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2270, in order to make Pyongyang realize that its obsession with nuclear missiles will only deepen its isolation from the international community and lead to self-destruction,” she said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called North Korea’s latest ballistic missile firing as “indescribable violence.” He hoped that South Korea and Japan, along with the U.N. Security Council, could cooperate to cope with Pyongyang’s threats.
President Park Geun-hye (left) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hold summit talks in Vientiane, Laos, on Sept. 7.
“The Seoul-Tokyo relationship has been making improvements ever since the resolution of the ‘comfort women’ issue at the end of last year, and has been widening its foundation to jointly work together on various challenges and tasks,” said President Park.
She proposed to the Japanese leader that both Seoul and Tokyo continue to cooperate so that the “comfort women” victims could have their honor and dignity restored and so that their scars could be healed.
“I’m glad to know that mutual understanding between the Korean and Japanese people, learning more about each other, is becoming more and more friendlier recently, and I hope we can develop this positive momentum for bilateral cooperation,” said President Park.
The Japanese prime minister agreed with her, saying that, “I’m happy to see progress in Tokyo-Seoul ties since the resolution of the ‘comfort women’ issue.”
“I hope I can work with President Park to develop bilateral ties so that they become an area of future-oriented cooperation that will usher in a new era in the Tokyo-Seoul relationship,” he said.
By Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Cheong Wa Dae
arete@korea.kr
