Tokyo, Seoul have consensus to shelve history issues: official

September 14, 2017

SEOUL- The Japanese and South Korean governments have reached a consensus to put history issues, including the issue of "comfort women," on the back burner for the time being, a South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

The spokesman said at a press conference that both governments have a common understanding that in talks including between their top leaders and between their foreign ministers, they should prevent history issues from hampering the future-oriented development of bilateral ties at a time when the South Korean side is reviewing the December 2015 comfort women accord.

The South Korean government will decide its position on the issue of comfort women, who were forced to sexually serve Japanese troops before and during World War II, on the basis of the results of the ongoing review by a Foreign Ministry panel, the spokesman said.

In a television interview the previous day, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha mentioned the consensus between Tokyo and Seoul, while saying it is not necessarily linked to the current situation over North Korea. Jiji Press