The exchange Sunday of seemingly amicable greetings between the leaders of South Korea and Japan has further boosted the prospect of a bilateral summit that has yet to be held amid territorial and historical conflicts.

During a brief encounter with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ahead of a luncheon at the U.N. headquarters in New York, President Park Geun-hye expressed her hope that they can meet in Seoul for a trilateral meeting that also involves their Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

“I am expecting (us) to meet in Seoul,” she said, after Abe said that he himself was looking forward to the trilateral summit, which is expected to take place in the South Korean capital in late October or early November.

Abe also congratulated Park on the “successful” summit between her and Chinese leader Xi earlier this month, and expressed his anticipation that her summit with U.S. President Barack Obama, slated for Oct. 16, would also be successful.

The two leaders are expected to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the envisioned trilateral summit. Park has shunned the talks on the grounds that the summit would only reconfirm the yawning gaps in perception over history issues amid the lack of Tokyo’s will to settle them.

Despite Washington’s calls for improvement in their relations, Park and Abe have not held a bilateral summit. They met for a trilateral summit, arranged by Obama in March 2014, and had brief encounters on several occasions, including one at the funeral of former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in March.

While the mood was growing positive for her summit with Abe, Park maintained her stern position over Tokyo’s wartime misdeeds, including the sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.

There is no path to unlocking the future, if the past is not acknowledged,” she said during her keynote speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, calling for a quick solution to bring “healing” to the surviving victims of wartime sexual slavery.

“This year marks the 15th anniversary of the adoption of Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and the international community should do justice to the occasion by paying greater attention to sexual violence against women in conflict situations,” she said.

“The most compelling reason is the fact that only a few of the victims of brutal sexual violence during World War II are still alive today.”

Seoul and Tokyo have held nine rounds of director-general-level talks over the victims of Japan’s sexual slavery, euphemistically called “comfort women,” since April 2014. But they have yet to reach any agreement to address the issue.

During her U.N. speech, Park also touched on Japan’s recently passed security legislation, stressing that it should be implemented transparently and in a way that is conducive to friendly relations among regional countries, and to peace and stability in the region. 

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan were to hold a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

High on the agenda were joint efforts to deter North Korea from setting off additional provocations, including a long-range rocket launch and a fourth nuclear test.

Pyongyang has hinted that it would launch a “satellite” around Oct. 10, the 70th anniversary of the founding of its ruling Workers’ Party. It also vowed to continue to strengthen “nuclear deterrence,” raising speculation over its atomic test.

On Wednesday, Seoul and Tokyo are to hold a bilateral meeting of their foreign ministers to discuss bilateral and regional issues including North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)