Accompanied by a delegation of 166 business representatives, South Korean President Park Geun-hye left for Washington on Tuesday. The trip was originally set for June, but delayed due to the MERS outbreak in South Korea.
Among all the goals of this tour, two topics are worth particular attention - the Peninsula issues and the Seoul-Tokyo relationship.
Since Park assumed office in 2013, she has been promoting the trust-building process on the Korean Peninsula. However, divergences exist between Seoul and Washington.
South Korea has long been hoping for peace and stability on the peninsula while the US has different thoughts. One of the focal points of the White House's global strategy is the pivot to the Asia-Pacific. It aims at China, but needs North Korea as leverage. Certain tension can "help" Washington promote the strategy. That is the reason why two and half years have passed since Park took office, but little has been achieved on that score.
Park has a positive attitude in negotiating the resumption of the long-stalled Six-Party Talks over North Korea's nuclear issue with the US. The latter, however, is constantly showing a negative attitude. Given the complexity of internal relations on the peninsula and in the entire Northeast Asia, when Park wants to take a step forward over the issue as well as its relationship with North Korea, she needs to have a profound talk with the US.
The South Korea-Japan relationship is another tricky issue that Park and her US counterpart Barack Obama may discuss during their meetings. The US hopes for improvement, because it is not only a weak link in Seoul's foreign policy, but also detrimental to the US rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region.
Both South Korea and Japan are US allies. Yet given the historical issues and island disputes, relations between the two sides have fallen into an abnormal state since the latter period of the Lee Myung-bak presidency.
Previously, Park insisted on sticking to the principle that as long as Japan does not thoroughly, sincerely confess its misdeeds in the war, there is nothing else for Seoul to communicate with it. That's why Park has never officially met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Washington undoubtedly hopes to stop the discord between two of its most important allies in the region.
The bilateral ties between Seoul and Tokyo are now slowly improving. Nevertheless, uncertainties still exist. Historical and island disputes were not resolved, but only put aside temporarily. If Abe makes any unpleasant statements or takes improper actions, the process will be easily disrupted and even blocked.
Moreover, not only Abe himself, but also Japan is nowadays steadily shifting to the right. It has already become a negative factor in the nation's diplomacy and a stumbling block in its relations with South Korea, but will not be lightly changed in the near future.
Park's visit is not only about Seoul-Washington ties, but will cover almost the entire Northeast Asia. There might be achievements and improvements during Park's tour this time, but major breakthroughs appear unlikely given all the constraints. More time and observations are needed.
The author is director of the Center for China's Relations with Neighboring Countries at Fudan University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn