The United States called Monday for strong and constructive relations between countries in Northeast Asia as it reacted to South Korea's offer to hold a summit meeting with Japan for the first time in more than three years.

The South made the proposal public earlier Monday, saying it recently suggested to Japan that President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hold their first formal talks in Seoul on Nov. 2 on the sidelines of a trilateral summit between the leaders of South Korea, Japan and China.

The proposed Park-Abe meeting, if realized, would mark the first bilateral summit between the two countries in about three and a half years. It could also serve as a turning point in relations between the two countries that have frayed badly over history and territorial tensions.

"We believe strong and constructive relations between all states supports regional peace and prosperity," Katina Adams, a spokesperson of the State Department's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Bureau, said in response to a Yonhap News Agency request for comment on Seoul's proposal of a summit.

She did not elaborate.

Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have been badly strained for years, due mainly to Tokyo's attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities and colonial occupation, especially its sexual enslavement of women for its troops during World War II.

The two countries held their last summit between then-President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in May 2012. Park and Abe have never held such a meeting as Tokyo has refused to accept Seoul's demand that it formally apologize to and compensate victims of its wartime sexual slavery.

Frayed relations between the two allies have been a key cause for concern for the U.S. as it seeks to bolster three-way security cooperation, seen as a key pillar for President Barack Obama's "pivot to Asia" initiative, aimed in part at keeping a rising China in check. (Yonhap)