Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye last week looked a bit like schoolyard rivals called into the principal's office and forced to smile and say nice things to one another. Barack Obama convened last Tuesday's trilateral summit, casting himself in the role of headmaster. It was a cagey move by a U.S. president whose promise to turn his administration's attention to Asia has been more talk than action.
Making sure the Abe-Park meeting is more than a fleeting photo opportunity requires concrete steps, however.
Although there's plenty of blame to go around for the sorry state of relations between Japan and its neighbors, there's something Abe could do to ratchet down tensions and build trust with Park: Tell people in his inner circle to clam up.