As go Korea and Vietnam, so can Korea and Japan?

THE first face-to-face meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing in November 2014 was an important step for two countries that have long distrusted each other.

Unfortunately, the same cannot yet be said for Japan and South Korea. Those two countries maintain extensive bilateral trade, but have been unable to progress to new open trade arrangements. Such a move would be good news for the region's peace as well as its economy. But old animosities have stalled such progress.

One of the unspoken rules of international affairs is that common prosperity usually trumps past political conflicts. Case in point: the remarkable milestone achieved by Korea and Vietnam in concluding a serious free-trade agreement. This is significant in both a regional and historical context.