During her visit to the United States in May, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said the following in her speech to the U.S. Congress: "Our journey extends beyond the Korean Peninsula to all of Northeast Asia where we must build a mechanism of peace and cooperation.
"Sadly, today the nations of this region fail to fulfill all that we can achieve collectively. That potential is tremendous.
"The region's economies are gaining ever greater clout and becoming more and more interlinked. Yet, differences stemming from history are widening. It has been said that those who are blind to the past cannot see the future. ... For where there is failure to acknowledge honestly what happened yesterday, there can be no tomorrow.