South Korea will make efforts to realize a foreign ministers' meeting between China, South Korea and Japan, saying that if the ministerial-level gathering is held, discussions will be made naturally on whether to hold the trilateral summit between the three nations, foreign ministry said Thursday.

The trilateral meeting of foreign ministers has not been held since April 2012 as territorial and historical disputes of Japan with China and South Korea escalated tensions in the region. The trilateral summit has also been halted since May 2012.

Regarding the bilateral summit between President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Noh Kwang-il told a press briefing that Japan needs to make sincere efforts to repent its militaristic past such as the comfort women, or the wartime sex slaves for the Imperialistic Japanese Army during World War II.

Park has refused, since her inauguration in February 2013, to sit down face-to-face with , citing his wrong perception of history.

Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine in December 2013, becoming the first Japanese prime minister in seven years who pays tribute to the controversial shrine. It stirred a wide range of condemnation and stern response from Japan's neighboring countries, especially from China and South Korea.