South Korea and Japan will reportedly hold talks between their high-ranking officials to discuss the Japanese army’s alleged exploitation of Korean women as sex slaves during World War II.
During the talks, the main point of discussion will center on the estimated 200,000 East Asian women, commonly known as comfort women, who were forced to work at front-line brothels for Japanese soldiers during the war. The two countries will discuss the lawsuits seeking compensation for the 55 South Korean victims who remain alive.
The talks will likely take place Thursday or Friday in Tokyo.
Lee Sang-deok, director general for Northeast Asian affairs, will represent South Korea while Japan will be represented by Junichi Ihara, director general of the Asian and Oceanian Affiars Bureau of the Foreign Ministry.
Whether or not the talks could help to create a resolution to the issue that has strained Korea-Japan relations for decades remains uncertain, but it’s significant that the two countries are holding the open discussion.
In recent years, South Korean President Park Geun-hye remained firm in her stance that she won’t meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unless Japan addresses the comfort women issue “effectively and in a way that is agreeable to the living victims.”
On the other hand, Japan has dismissed Korea’s demand for a sincere apology and proper compensation, saying that its government has already compensated Korea for its wartime atrocities through a 1965 treaty that normalized the two countries’ bilateral ties.
Ties between South Korea and Japan still remain at the lowest point in recent decades as the two countries are also in dispute over islets in the East Sea, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.
