South Korean president Park Geun-hye says she hopes the three-way meeting would help clear obstacles to better relations with Tokyo, and boost stability in North-east Asia. During her visit to Washington about two weeks ago, Park also said she was open to a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, stressing the importance of the sex-slave issue.
"The Korean people are keenly following this upcoming meeting, and for instance I would note the issue of the sex slave victims is a very important pending issue at the moment. Most of these women victims are now in their 90s, and just this year alone we've seen nine victims pass away and we currently only have 47 remaining survivors so literally we really don't have much time in dealing with it, to make sure we can bring closure to their pent up agony," Park said.
