Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed no desire to revise a past government apology for Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, South Korea's parliamentary speaker said Monday, indicating Japan's continued efforts to improve strained ties between the two historically rival countries.
South Korea's National Assembly speaker Chung Ui-hwa met with Abe at the prime minister's office, where the two sides discussed a range of bilateral issues, including the issue of the former sex slaves. Chung is on a three-day visit to Japan at the invitation of Bunmei Ibuki, the speaker of Japan's lower house of parliament.
"Prime Minister Abe repeated the exact words he said in March (regarding our countries' shared history)," Chung told reporters after the meeting. "He said he would completely inherit the historical perception of past governments."
In 1993, Japan issued the "Kono Statement," named after then Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, which acknowledged that women from Korea and other Asian nations were coerced into sexual servitude at Japanese military brothels during World War II.
Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910-45.
In June, however, Tokyo conducted a review of the statement, which suggested that the acknowledgment was an outcome of political compromise between Seoul and Tokyo, not based on historical facts.
Amid strong criticism from South Korea and China, Abe has repeatedly vowed to honor the statement.
"(Abe) said he has no intention at all to revise the Kono Statement," Chung said.
Seoul-Tokyo relations have plunged into one of their worst levels in recent years largely because of their shared history.
Since taking office in February 2013, South Korean President Park Geun-hye has refused to meet Abe bilaterally, and one of the most knotty issues is the sex slaves, commonly called "comfort women."
Historians estimate that up to 200,000 Asian women, mostly Koreans, were forced into sexual servitude for Japan's World War II soldiers. Japan has refused to take any responsibility for the issue, arguing that it was done by money-gregarious civilian pimps. (Yonhap)
