Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet next week with his South Korean counterpart, Park Geun-hye, the first Tokyo-Seoul summit in two years amid still-simmering nationalistic sentiment on both sides.
The U.S.-initiated trilateral summit is scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands on Monday and Tuesday. It will also be attended by President Barack Obama.
Experts say Seoul agreed to participate in the summit only after the U.S. put huge pressure on South Korea, as Washington has repeatedly urged the two nations to mend their ties and avoid destabilizing East Asia.