Submitted by admin on Sat, 2007-03-31 08:00. ::
JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, March 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon on Saturday urged Japan to correct its past wrongdoings "here and now" amid fresh tension between the neighboring states over the issue of Korean women forced into Japanese military brothels during World War II.
"The responsibility of removing the cloud over our head and the fog ahead of us does not lie in those who committed the wrong in the past, but those who are living here and now," Song told Aso as the two began their first meeting since late last year.
Song had visited Tokyo in December shortly after assuming his post. The foreign ministerial talks are to last until Sunday when the Japanese foreign minister is scheduled to return to his country.
The meeting follows a recent uproar in South Korea caused by what South Koreans consider Tokyo's absurd, or at least insensitive, assertions about Korean women who were forced to provide sexual servitude to the Japanese military during World War II.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked outrage earlier this month when he claimed there was no evidence to prove the Japanese government forced Asian women into sexual slavery.
Over 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and China but also from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Netherlands and the Philippines, are believed to have been forced to work as sex slaves, often referred to by the euphemism "comfort women," 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, who arrived here earlier in the day after a two-hour delay due to bad weather, said conditions surrounding South Korea and Japan are as "turbulent as today's weather."
Aso agreed there were a number of issues, including what he called the "South Korea-Japan issues," that need to be discussed at his meeting with the South Korean foreign minister.
Casting dark clouds over the foreign ministerial talks, Tokyo recently approved a set of school textbooks that, according to Seoul officials, deny the Japanese government's role in establishing and running the World War II military brothels and also lays territorial claim to a set of South Korean islets, Dokdo, another main source of discord between the two neighbors.
Seoul issued its deep concerns Friday, saying it is "intolerable" and vowing to take corresponding measures after carefully studying the school textbooks.
The repeated row over the history issue has often prevented talks between Seoul and Tokyo and the recent dispute was expected to take its toll on a much-anticipated summit between the countries' heads of state.
One item on the agenda for the foreign ministerial talks was expected to be setting a date for a meeting between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and the Japanese prime minister.
"I believe it would be difficult to set up a specific date (for the summit) during the talks this weekend, given the recent situation," a ministry official told reporters, while asking not to be identified. Roh and Abe last met in Seoul last October.
South Korea, the United States, China and Russia have agreed to provide 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid to the communist North in a six-way agreement that also involves Japan.
Tokyo has refused to pitch in until its dispute with Pyongyang over the issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped by the North decades ago is fully resolved.
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