Park seeks 'candid' talks with China

The Republic of Korea's president, Park Geun-hye, said during a US visit that she looks forward to having "very candid discussions" with President Xi Jinping of China over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, its nuclear weapons, and regional peace and stability.

In an interview with the Washington Post published on Wednesday, Park said she also hopes to be able to talk with Xi about the future of the DPRK if it decides against taking the "right path" toward becoming "a responsible member of the international community".

"In order for North Korea to change, and in order for the Korean Peninsula to enjoy greater peace, North Korea needs to choose the right path, and China should exert greater influence in inducing North Korea to do so," said Park, who took office on Feb 25, less than three weeks before Xi became president.

Park, who met President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday for her first official visit abroad, said she and the US president noted positive changes from China regarding the DPRK since Xi took office.

"Of course, we can't expect China to do everything, and the Chinese also say they can't do everything. But I do believe there's room for them to undertake more with respect to some material aspects," Park told the Post.

She believes China's "growth and development through reform and opening" offers a "very good model" for the DPRK to follow. "So they can perhaps strengthen their persuasion of [North] Korea in this regard," Park said of China.

Beijing for years has opposed regime change in the DPRK and tried to persuade the country to pursue policies of opening-up and economic reform that have made China the world's second-biggest economy.

Park, the first female president of the Republic of Korea, is expected to travel to China soon. The 61-year-old leader has visited China several times before, including as chairwoman of the conservative Saenuri, or New Frontier (sometimes Grand National) Party. Those trips included a meeting in 2008 with President Hu Jintao and a 2006 address to China's Central Party School on the success of ROK rural reforms. Those 1970s initiatives, known as New Village Movement, were launched by Park's father, Park Chung-hee, during his 18-year leadership of the ROK. (He was assassinated in 1979.)

Park is well liked among the Chinese public for her Mandarin-speaking ability and status as the first woman head of state in Northeast Asia. Many people in both countries expect China-ROK relations to warm up after growing cool under Park's immediate predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, whose tough stance on the DPRK is in contrast to the trust-building process Park has outlined.

During a 1974 assassination attempt on her father, President Park Chung-hee, Park's mother was killed. Chinese media reports have said Park found strength after losing both her parents by reading a history of Chinese philosophy by scholar Feng Youlan.

Regarding the United States' strategic rebalancing in Asia, Park said: "If North Korea were to choose to become a responsible member of the international community and desist from provocations I am sure we would not need to see the strengthening of military postures in the region."

Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that while Park wants to send a message of strengthening relations and building trust with China, her center of gravity is the US-ROK alliance.

Park, whose five-day US trip ends on Friday, repeated to the Post her earlier-stated frustration with some Japanese officials' conduct regarding World War II.

"The Japanese have been opening past wounds and have been letting them fester, and this applies not only to Korea but also to other neighboring countries," she said in the interview. "This arrests our ability to really build momentum, so I hope that Japan reflects upon itself."

Addressing a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday morning, Park said "those who are blind to the past cannot see the future."

"This is obviously a problem for the here and now. But the larger issue is about tomorrow. For where there is failure to acknowledge honestly what happened yesterday, there can be no tomorrow," she said in her speech.

Officials and citizens in the ROK and China were outraged after 168 Japanese legislators and several cabinet members in late April visited the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's war dead, including those convicted of war crimes, are memorialized. Also, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently attempted to deny that Japan's militarism in World War II was aggression, remarks that prompted critical opinion pieces in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

Michael Green, a Japan expert at CSIS, said those articles came as "a shock" to Abe's office. "Two comparatively friendly newspapers sending a warning shot saying, you know, be careful on this one," he said.

On Wednesday, Tokyo-based daily the Nikkei reported that Abe had walked back his April 23 comments.

"There has been a wide range of scholarly discussion, so I noted the absence of a clear-cut definition of 'invasion'," the prime minister was quoted as telling a committee in Japan's parliament. "As a politician, it is not my role to enter" that discussion, he said.