President Park Geun-hye on Thursday met with the U.S. House minority leader to discuss ways to deepen cooperation in bilateral issues, officials said.

With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scheduled to make a congressional address later this month, Seoul is forecast to focus chiefly on rallying U.S. lawmakers behind its efforts to extract a sincere atonement for Tokyo’s atrocities during World War II, such as sex slavery involving Korean and other women.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who was the first female speaker of the House of Representatives from 2007-11, played a key role when the lower chamber unanimously endorsed a resolution in 2007 calling for Japan’s formal apology for the wartime sexual enslavement, initiated by Rep. Mike Honda. 

“Park will request the Congress’ active cooperation and understanding about major pending issues between South Korea and the U.S.,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Min Kyung-wook told reporters ahead of the meeting, without elaborating further.

The third-term lawmaker touched down in Seoul on Wednesday for a three-day stay with a group of about 10 politicians from both the Democrat and Republican Parties, including Reps. Charles Rangel (D-New York), Sander Levin (D-Michigan) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania).

She also visited South and North Koreas in 1997 as a member of the House intelligence committee.

Pelosi also met with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, National Assembly Speaker Rep. Chung Ui-hwa and other ranking officials and lawmakers here.

The delegation is scheduled to leave for Tokyo on Thursday.

The visit came shortly after Abe was invited by the incumbent speaker John Boehner to address a joint session of the Congress on April 29. However, criticism is growing for what is seen as his ongoing attempts to whitewash Japan’s imperial past, with the premier depicting the so-called comfort women as victims of “human trafficking” in an apparent effort to dilute Japan’s direct involvement in the issue.

During a lunch meeting earlier in the day, Chung expressed regret that Abe’s failure to face up to history poses a hurdle for not just a thaw between the two old foes, but also greater three-way collaboration, including with the U.S.

“The history issue is not just a matter of the past ... I hope that Prime Minister Abe will use his address at the U.S. Congress to ‘acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility,’ as requested in H. Res. 121, and make the event a turning point where the countries concerned leave the past behind and move forward to achieve peace in the region and beyond,” he said, referring to the watershed resolution.

In response, Pelosi introduced two Japanese-American lawmakers who are accompanying her on the trip ― Doris Matsui and Mark Takai ― and praised their contribution in the lead-up to the text’s passage.

“When we put forth the resolution, the strength of it was the Japanese-Americans, who are putting forth the resolution on the comfort women,” she said. “Again, high priorities for us and one of the first pieces of legislation that we passed in a strong bipartisan way, signed by the president.”

On the bilateral front, the sides were predicted to change their views over ongoing negotiations to amend a nuclear energy pact, a proposed bill in the House designed to raise the quota of professional visas and South Korea’s potential participation in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Yun, for his part, briefed lawmakers on Seoul’s efforts to mend ties with Tokyo, such as through a trilateral partnership including Beijing, while stressing the need for Japanese leaders to correct historical perceptions, ministry officials said.

By Shin Hyon-hee and Yeo Jun-suk
(heeshin@heraldcorp.com) (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)