South Korean President Park Geun-hye faces a delicate balancing act between her country's rapidly developing ties with Beijing and U.S. pressure to mend ties with Tokyo as she hosts the first three-way summit in three years with China and Japan.
Sunday's summit will be a diplomatic breakthrough for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has sought a one-on-one meeting with Park amid a push by Washington for its two main Asia allies to move beyond their bitter wartime history in the face of a more assertive China.
"We have conducted an increasingly mature diplomacy both with the United States and with China over the years," a South Korean official said. "In the case of Japan, things have been more difficult, but we recognize we need to move forward."