Kono rejects additional steps on comfort women issue

January 17, 2018

Vancouver, Canada- Foreign Minister Taro Kono clarified Tuesday Japan's rejection of additional measures proposed by South Korea in its new policy on the 2015 bilateral agreement to resolve the issue of so-called comfort women.

Japan cannot accept any request at all from South Korea to take further measures, Kono said during talks with his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, in Vancouver, western Canada.

Kono also told Kang that Japan cannot agree to hold negotiations on the matter.

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.

Earlier this month, Kang, in announcing the new policy on the bilateral accord, said that the South Korean government 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, South Korean President Moon Jae-in asked Japan to offer a heartfelt apology to former comfort women.

In Vancouver, Kono and Kang held talks in English for about 45 minutes without the aid of interpreters, according to a Japanese official with access to the meeting. The talks were held on the sidelines of a conference of foreign ministers from some 20 nations to discuss North Korea's nuclear development.

In her talks with Kono, Kang invited Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to visit South Korea during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, which will open in the country on Feb. 9.

Kono said whether to accept the invitation will be decided in view of the prime minister's parliamentary schedule and other circumstances.

He asked the South Korean government to appropriately respond to plans to set up in front of Japanese diplomatic establishments in South Korea statues symbolizing Korean people recruited to work at Japanese factories during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Elsewhere in their talks, Kono and Kang reaffirmed a policy to put maximum pressure on North Korea to urge the reclusive state to make concrete moves toward denuclearization.

They also agreed to promote cooperation between Japan and South Korea and among the two countries plus the United States in responding to the issue of North Korea's nuclear development.

In addition, Kono and Kang had a discussion on the Sea of Japan islets of Takeshima in Shimane Prefecture, western Japan. They are effectively controlled by South Korea, where they are known as Dokdo. Jiji Press