Japan protests S. Korean assembly speaker’s remarks

February 12, 2019

Tokyo--The Japanese government has strongly protested South Korean National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang's remarks calling for the Emperor's apology over the issue of so-called comfort women, Japanese officials said Tuesday.

"I was really surprised. The remarks included something very inappropriate and are extremely regrettable," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting.

In the recently reported remarks, Moon sought the Emperor's direct apology to South Korean women forced into prostitution for Japanese troops before and during World War II.

The government lodged the protest through a diplomatic channel, urging Moon to withdraw the remarks and apologize, according to Abe and other officials.

Foreign Minister Taro Kono said the protest was conveyed from Kenji Kanasugi, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, to a minister at the South Korean embassy in Tokyo.

Kono said he hopes to see a sincere response from South Korea.

The South Korean government defended the speaker, explaining that the remarks reflected his wish for better bilateral relations and were not reported as he had intended, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference.

But there has been no apology from South Korea, Suga added.

Meanwhile, Kanasugi asked South Korea to reply to a Japanese request for bilateral talks under the two countries' 1965 treaty to settle property claims, that followed South Korean Supreme Court rulings ordering Japanese companies pay compensation to South Koreans over wartime labor. Jiji Press