S Korea, Japan seek to lower tensions
 

https://www.thenews.com.pk/assets/up...3951_print.jpg ‘Comfort women’



TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with a senior South Korean envoy on Thursday, as the two countries try to lower tensions over Tokyo’s wartime use of "comfort women".

The special envoy dis*****ed by South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-In said in Tokyo that Seoul wants regular summits and improved relations, which have been hindered by the memory of Japan’s harsh colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910-1945.

Abe also struck a conciliatory **te, saying: "With the new president, I wish to build future-oriented Japan-South Korea relations."

In what both governments hoped was a major step forward, the two countries had agreed in 2015 to a deal designed to end a row over Korean "comfort women" forced into *** slavery for Japanese soldiers during the World War II.

However, the election this month of Moon as president, replacing the ousted Park Geun-Hye, has cast doubt over the agreement, which both governments previously had said "resolved (the issue) finally and irreversibly".

Moon in a phone call with Abe last week said that most Koreans can**t accept the agreement.

That raised worries in Tokyo that the issue could again hinder ties, at a time when both countries are seeking unity to face the threat posed by **rth Korea’s nuclear and missile development.

As part of the accord, Japan offered an apology and a payment totalling one billion yen ($9 million) to the dozens of remaining survivers.

But critics of the deal in South Korea said Japan did **t go far e**ugh, and earlier this year Tokyo recalled its ambassador over a statue symbolising "comfort women", which was erected outside its consulate in the South Korean city of Busan.

Speaking to reporters after Thursday’s meeting, envoy Moon Hee-Sang confirmed that the "comfort women" issue had been raised, but did **t offer further details.

"We had a serious discussion but I find it uncomfortable to say more about it," Moon said, adding that both sides expressed their positions.

Japan has pressed Seoul to implement the deal and also to remove a**ther "comfort women" statue near the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

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