Abe Keeps Pushing for Summit with Park

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Korean lawmakers on Thursday and said he is keen to meet with President Park Geun-hye "before the end of this year."

Abe also told Korean Ambassador to Japan Lee Byung-kee on Wednesday that he hopes to meet Park "in the near future."

The Japanese leader met for 20 minutes with a group of Korean lawmakers in Tokyo on Thursday afternoon.

Abe greeted the lawmakers in Korean and stressed throughout the meeting the importance of Seoul-Tokyo relations, according to officials who were there.

The Japanese premier has frequently called for a summit with Park, but Cheong Wa Dae feels this cannot happen unless the rightwing Abe administration stops trying to whitewash Japanese atrocities against Koreans during the 1910-1945 occupation.

But experts warn that this could make it look as though Korea was the source of the friction.

Lee Jong-won at Japan's Waseda University said, "Japan has repeatedly called for a summit, so other countries might get the wrong impression that Korea is to blame for worsening bilateral relations."