Submitted by admin on Fri, 2007-03-30 08:00. ::
SEOUL, March 30 (Bernama) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso will hold talks this weekend on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II and other issues of mutual concern, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the cabinet-level meeting, the first of its kind since December last year when Song visited Tokyo, will be held in the southern South Korean island of Jeju until Sunday.
High on the agenda will be the lingering controversy over the Japanese government's role in coercing Korean and other Asian women into military brothels during World War II.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused an outrage recently when he claimed there was no evidence to prove the Japanese government forced Asian women into sexual slavery.
Seoul has expressed "deep regrets" over Abe's recent remarks. "Minister Song is expected to raise the issue during his meeting with Aso this weekend," a Foreign Ministry official said while speaking on condition of anonymity.
Over 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and China but also from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, are believed to have been forced to work as sex slaves, often referred to as "comfort women," by Japanese authorities during the war.
The Japanese prime minister has said his cabinet stands by a 1993 apology issued by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono to former sex slaves.
Many South Koreans believe Tokyo has yet to sincerely atone for its past atrocities. Song is also expected to call on Japan to provide its part of the costs for international efforts to disarm North Korea.
South Korea, the US, China and Russia have agreed to provide 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid to the communist North in a six-way agreement that also involves Japan.
Tokyo refuses to share the cost until its dispute with Pyongyang over the issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped by the North decades ago is fully resolved.
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