S. Korean President To Meet Former Japanese Prime Minister

South Korean President Park Geun- hye will meet Friday with a former Japanese prime minister, who will come here to attend the opening ceremony of the Asian Games, Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday citing Park's spokesman.
Presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook was quoted as saying that former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will pay a courtesy call to President Park on Friday, before attending the opening ceremony of the Asian Games in Incheon, the country's western port city, later that day.
Mori would reportedly carry a message from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Park, which is expected to show Abe's eagerness to improve bilateral relations but to lack of sincere and detailed comments on the imperialistic Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.
Park has refused, since her inauguration in February 2013, to hold a bilateral summit with Abe, citing Abe's wrong perception of history and territorial disputes between the two countries.
Director general-level diplomats from South Korea and Japan will meet in Tokyo Friday to hold talks about Japan's wartime sex slavery of Korean women.
South Korea has maintained its position that Park could sit down face-to-face with Abe only after conditions are met on historical issues.
Park and Abe will attend the U.N. General Assembly next week, where foreign ministers of the two countries will accompany their leaders. (Cihan/Xinhua)