Korea blasts Japan over remarks denying responsibility for sex slave issue

South Korea lambasted Japan on Wednesday for trying to dodge responsibility for its mobilization of Korean women as sex slaves during World War II, saying the country would have "no future" if it "turns a blind eye to history."

Earlier this week, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and other senior officials made remarks that there is no documentary evidence showing Japan forced Korean women into sexual slavery during its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The remarks were seen as running counter to a 1993 apology that Japan's then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono issued for the forced sex slavery. The so-called "Kono statement" has been considered a key element of the basis for relations between the two countries.

"This is truly an act that goes contrary to the flow of the times," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tae-young said in a statement, accusing Japan of ignoring the pain of the victims and international calls for resolving the issue.

"Japan's government should keep this point deeply in mind that a country that turns a blind eye to history has no future, and come up with solutions to cure the scars and pain of the victims," he said.

Cho stressed that Japan already acknowledged its responsibility for the issue in the 1993 statement, and U.N. reports have called for Japan's government to admit its responsibility, apologize to and compensate the victims and punish those responsible.

Historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were coerced into sexual slavery at front-line Japanese military brothels during World War II. Moreover, former sex slaves, who are euphemistically called "comfort women," have long testified the hardship they were forced into.

Seoul has increased pressure on Tokyo to resolve the grievances of the victims, saying the issue is becoming increasingly urgent as most victims are elderly, well over 80 years old, and may die before they receive compensation or an apology from Japan.

Currently, there are only 60 victims alive.

Japan, however, has been ignoring Seoul's demand for official talks on compensating the aging Korean women, claiming all issues regarding its colonial rule were settled in a 1965 package compensation deal under which the two countries normalized their relations.

Relations between South Korea and Japan have deteriorated seriously in recent weeks after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made an unprecedented visit to the country's easternmost islets of Dokdo, and Japan protested the trip.

Earlier Tuesday, Japan's upper house of parliament adopted a resolution calling for South Korea to end what it calls Seoul's "illegal occupation" of Dokdo. Seoul's Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho flatly rejected the resolution.

"The repetition of unreasonable claims to our territory of Dokdo shows Japan has no intention to liquidate the leftovers from Imperialist Japan's colonial pillage," the spokesman said in a separate statement. (Yonhap News)