Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa called last week’s South Korean court ruling in favor of a group of former “comfort women” seeking compensation from Tokyo “extremely regrettable” and urged Seoul to address the issue, during bilateral talks with South Korea’s top diplomat Sunday.
During the 85-minute meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin in the port city of Busan, about 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Kamikawa conveyed Tokyo’s position that Seoul “immediately take appropriate measures,” according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
The term “comfort women,” or ianfu in Japanese, is a euphemism for those who suffered under Japan’s military brothel system before and during World War II. Tokyo called the latest ruling “absolutely unacceptable,” saying it is “clearly contrary to international law and agreements between the two countries.”
Japan says all issues stemming from its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula were settled “completely and finally” under a 1965 bilateral deal, and that a landmark 2015 agreement between Tokyo and Seoul “finally and irreversibly” resolved the comfort women issue.
Park reiterated Seoul’s position that it respects the 2015 agreement and urged the two countries to “continue to make efforts toward a constructive and future-oriented relationship,” the Yonhap news agency quoted a South Korean Foreign Ministry official as saying.
Ties between the two U.S. allies had plummeted to new lows in recent years amid festering disputes over Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. That changed following South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s election last year, with Yoon and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reaching a deal on a row over wartime labor that opened the door for a return to “shuttle diplomacy” that has seen them meet seven times this year.
In particular, the two countries have beefed up trilateral security cooperation with Washington amid nuclear-armed North Korea’s repeated weapons tests.
On Sunday, the two ministers condemned Pyongyang’s launch last week of a military spy satellite, which they said had employed ballistic missile technology in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. The two countries said they would continue to work together closely to respond to the situation.
Kamikawa’s talks with Park came ahead of a three-way summit also involving Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Busan, where the three looked to lay the foundation for a trilateral leaders summit.
A day earlier, Kamikawa joined Wang for bilateral talks, with the top Japanese diplomat “strongly urging” Beijing to immediately remove its complete ban on seafood imports from Japan over the release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
The Fukushima row has bedeviled Sino-Japanese relations already facing tensions over issues including China’s growing military assertiveness in the region. Despite this, both sides agreed to find a way to resolve the Fukushima matter “through discussion and dialogue in a constructive manner,” Japan’s Foreign Ministry said.
Wang repeated China’s opposition to the discharge of “nuclear-contaminated water,” a move that he labeled as “irresponsible,” according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog and gave its approval for the release, said late last month that the operation was “progressing as planned and without any technical concerns.”
The two top diplomats also agreed to hold bilateral security talks “at an early date,” after Kamikawa expressed “serious concerns” about China’s moves near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. These concerns included Beijing’s placement of a buoy inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone near the uninhabited islets, which China also claims and calls the Diaoyu.
Kamikawa also used the 100-minute meeting to broach the issue of China’s increased military activities around Japan, including its cooperation with Russia, as well as the situation in the South China Sea, Hong Kong and its far-west Xinjiang region, the ministry said.
On the issue of democratic Taiwan, Kamikawa reiterated the importance of “peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” China claims the self-ruled island is a renegade province that must be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
But Wang said the two sides “must respect each other’s legitimate concerns,” with Japan earnestly abiding by the “One China” principle and refraining from interfering in Beijing’s internal affairs, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.
Kamikawa, who became foreign minister in September, was visiting South Korea for the first time as Japan’s top diplomat. Her trip comes on the heels of Kishida’s meeting earlier this month with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
During those talks, Kishda and Xi agreed to “comprehensively promote a mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests” amid soured ties over a variety of issues, including the wastewater row.
The prime minister later said that he had discussed the Fukushima issue with Xi, and the two had agreed to arrange expert-level consultations on the matter.
In opening remarks ahead of Kamikawa’s meeting with Wang, Japan’s top diplomat said she “looked forward to working closely together to develop Sino-Japanese relations in line with the direction indicated by the two leaders.”
Wang, meanwhile, called the leaders’ agreement “an important political guideline” and said the two foreign ministers would aim to improve relations “along a healthy and correct trajectory.”
Source : TheJapanTimes