Park Geun-hye's historic impeachment as South Korea's president, upheld by the Constitutional Court on Friday, has complicated Japan's path to reconciling grievances between the two Asian giants — including on the "comfort women" issue — and could also impact their response to the escalating North Korean security threat.
While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in power since Park became president in 2013, has not seen eye to eye with her on every issue, together they made progress on one of the most intractable historical issues facing the two nations.
In December 2015, they reached an accord on dealing with the issue of comfort women, or those forced into Japanese military brothels before and during World War II. That accord promised to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the long-festering issue.