海角大神

For years Washington has pressed its two closest allies in East Asia, Japan and South Korea, to get over their differences and pull together in the face a rising China.

On Monday, after meeting for the first time, Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye said they will try to settle their thorniest dispute 鈥� over 鈥渃omfort women鈥� forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II 鈥撀犫�渁s early as possible.鈥�

The announcement raised hopes that the two leaders may be ready to strike new compromises and that problems that have kept them apart for three years may begin to recede.聽

鈥淣ot many people have high expectations that this issue will be resolved quickly,鈥� says Yu Myung-hwan, a former South Korean foreign minister closely involved in relations with Japan. But he says that 鈥淢r. Abe is a pragmatic politician and I believe he wants to put this behind him.鈥澛�

A deal with South Korea would help soften Abe鈥檚 reputation in the region as a strong nationalist. It could also abate fears about his ambitions for Japan to take a more active military role in regional affairs.

Ms. Park, meanwhile, has signaled that Seoul is ready to decouple the comfort women issue from other items on the bilateral agenda and allow for the closer cooperation that Washington would like to see.

Galling for Koreans

That is a significant concession given how large the comfort women question looms over the Korean peninsula, which Japan occupied for decades prior to WWII. In 2011, the Korean Supreme Court ordered the government to press its case more forcefully with Japan. But the issue became especially galling to Koreans in 2014 when Abe鈥檚 government began promoting a revisionist version of colonial history. It implied that Korean women were willing participants in the brothels.聽

Park has made it a personal crusade to see justice for the Korean comfort women. Only 47 of them remain alive, and they are mostly in their 90s. Until聽Monday Park had refused to meet Abe until Japan offered them new apologies and compensation.

That Park relented on this condition 鈥渋ndicates that South Korea is showing a more conciliatory posture towards Japan and the Japanese government has taken that opportunity,鈥� says a senior Japanese official familiar with government thinking. 鈥淲e have chosen to be just a little bit hopeful.鈥�

It is unclear whether Japan too is ready to be conciliatory. Koreans close to the seven rounds of fruitless negotiations that senior foreign ministry officials have held say Tokyo still refuses to take legal responsibility for the 鈥渃omfort stations鈥� in which Korean and other Asian women were forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers.

Political decision needed

Japanese negotiators, on the other hand, complain that Seoul has refused to offer cast iron assurances that any deal will be the final word on the matter, closing it forever. Tokyo argues that the 1965 treaty restoring diplomatic relations prevented subsequent claims on Japan by Korean citizens.

Such logjams could yield if 鈥渂oth sides make a political decision鈥� at the top, says Mr. Yu.

Park鈥檚 ability to make compromises is limited by the organization set up to support former comfort women, the Korean Council of Women, which scuppered an earlier Japanese effort to resolve the issue by branding it insufficient.

Abe, on the other hand, while backing away from suggestions he would revoke an apology for the military brothels by a previous Japanese government, has denied there is any evidence that Japanese troops coerced Korean women into prostitution.

鈥淲hat happened in the war will be irrelevant to whatever deal that could take place,鈥� says the Japanese official. 鈥淚t is all a matter of current politics.鈥�

To Koreans, who expect any deal to serve as a Japanese acceptance of responsibility, such an attitude smacks of insincerity. 鈥淭he ball is in Japan鈥檚 court now,鈥� says Park Joon-woo, formerly one of Park鈥檚 closest advisers. 鈥淲e have to wait and see how flexible Abe can be.鈥�