Abe to attend Pyeongchang Olympic opening ceremony

January 24, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday showed his willingness to attend the Feb. 9 opening ceremony for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, reversing his initial intention to skip the event.

"I want to attend the Pyeongchang Olympics' opening ceremony when conditions permit," Abe told reporters at his office.

Also expressing his wish to hold talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during his stay in the country, Abe said, "I want to surely convey Japan's position on the bilateral agreement with South Korea" on the issue of so-called comfort women.

Abe said he also wants to stress the necessity of three-way cooperation among Japan, South Korea and the United States in responding to the threat from North Korea and the need to continue applying maximum pressure on the reclusive state.

Noting that Japan will also host Olympic and Paralympic Games, in summer 2020 in Tokyo, Abe stressed the significance of attending the Pyeongchang Games, another Olympics in Asia, to give encouragement to athletes.

In Seoul, an official of the presidential office welcomed Abe's plan to visit South Korea and pledged cooperation to make the visit successful.

The prime minister initially planned to refuse South Korea's invitation to the Olympic ceremony, apparently in protest against Seoul's announcement earlier this month of a new policy on the 2015 comfort women accord.

While Abe said he would decide whether to attend the ceremony in view of his parliamentary schedule and other circumstances, Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of Komeito, the LDP's coalition partner, said the prime minister should go there.

Abe eventually judged it desirable to directly convey to Moon Japan's rejection of additional measures proposed by South Korea in its new policy on the comfort women deal and urge the country to steadily implement the agreement.

Also behind Abe's decision to visit South Korea is his wish to confirm cooperation with Moon in efforts to make North Korea change its policy of promoting nuclear and missile development.

In December 2015, Japan and South Korea agreed to "finally and irreversibly" resolve their dispute over former comfort women in South Korea, who were forced to serve as prostitutes for Japanese troops before and during World War II.

In early January this year, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, in announcing the new policy on the bilateral accord, said Seoul will cover the one billion yen that the Japanese government contributed to the South Korean side, based on the accord, to offer support to former comfort women in South Korea.

Later at his New Year's press conference, Moon asked Japan to offer a heartfelt apology to former comfort women.

LDP officials, at a meeting of in Tokyo on Wednesday, voiced opposition to Abe's plan to visit South Korea, claiming that the move will unlikely win public support or produce tangible results. They are considering asking the prime minister to change his mind. Jiji Press