Korea, China and Japan will resume their long-stalled trilateral summit this weekend, starting to make joint efforts to normalize their frayed relations.

President Park Geun-hye has invited Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the summit, slated for Nov. 1 in Seoul. Each leader will also have bilateral meetings with the other two before or after the summit.

Park’s meeting with Abe is drawing keen attention as it will be their first one-on-one since they took office more than two years ago.

The trilateral summit was last held in 2012 before being suspended due to disputes between China and Korea on one hand and Japan on the other over history and territory.

The Seoul summit does not mean that the disputes have come to an end, but it signals that the three key players of Northeast Asia are willing to mend fences, ease tensions, and expand cooperation.

The relationship among the three neighbors can be characterized by “hot economics and cold politics.”

Economic cooperation among the three countries has been brisk as their economies are highly complementary. Huge investment and trade flows intertwine the three economies, making them interdependent.

Yet despite the “hot” economic ties, political relations between Seoul and Tokyo as well as between Beijing and Tokyo have remained “cold” due to security rivalries and persistent disputes over territory and history.

Cold politics has prevented the three countries from integrating their economies in a way that would fully utilize their potential and create synergy.

The chilly political relationship, however, has recently begun to thaw, prompting the leaders to agree to resume dialogue.

The leaders won’t be able to warm up their political ties in one summit. Yet they should endeavor at the Seoul meeting to build trust among themselves, which is indispensable for further warming up relations and elevating trilateral cooperation to a higher dimension.

In this regard, apologies from Abe to Korea and China for the suffering Japan inflicted on them in the early part of the 20th century would go a long way in gaining confidence from the other two leaders.

During her trip to Washington last month, Park suggested that the trilateral summit would become more meaningful if Japan could resolve the issue of the Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army.

But Abe is unlikely to address Seoul’s long-standing grudge. This is feared to weaken the momentum that the resumed summit would create for the normalization of the strained trilateral relationship.

Nevertheless, Park will have to take it in stride and pursue her agenda. Park’s top priority at the summit is securing full support from Beijing and Tokyo for Seoul’s efforts to thwart North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and improve inter-Korean relations.

Following the Aug. 25 inter-Korean accord, the North has become visibly more conciliatory toward the South. It has also begun to mend fences with China, which should be seen as a positive change.

This is partly the result of Park’s efforts to create an environment in Northeast Asia that would facilitate inter-Korean reconciliation and, ultimately, the reunification of the two Koreas.

For Park, the trilateral summit offers a good chance to ensure that both Beijing and Tokyo play a constructive role in keeping up the momentum for reconciliation.

Park also needs to push China and Japan to join her plans aimed at building confidence among the three countries and creating a powerful economic community in Northeast Asia that can drive the global economy forward.