Park to hold her first summit with Abe on Nov. 2

President Park Geun-hye will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Seoul early next week in the first bilateral summit between the leaders of the two neighbors since May 2012, when the then South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met with his Japanese counterpart Yoshihiko Noda.

Kim Kyou-hyun, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs, told reporters on Wednesday that the two leaders will hold a summit on the morning of November 2 on the sidelines of the trilateral summit among the government heads of South Korea, China and Japan. "Park and Abe will exchange views on ways to promote bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest," Kim said. The two leaders have decided not to have a luncheon meeting at Japan`s request that followed a war of nerves between Seoul and Tokyo. Instead, the two sides are considering extending the summit from the originally planned 30 minutes.

The thorniest issue at the Seoul-Tokyo summit will likely be elderly South Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War II. The Seoul-Beijing-Tokyo summit will take place a day earlier at Park`s office Cheong Wa Dae. Park, Abe and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang will adopt a joint statement after discussing ways to promote trilateral cooperation, before holding a joint news conference.

mhpark@donga.com