Moon calls for S. Korea-Japan efforts to heal past wounds

March 1, 2019

Seoul--South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for "concerted efforts" with Japan to heal wounds his country's neighbor inflicted on Koreans, to mark the 100th anniversary of a Korean independence movement Friday.

"When the pain of victims is substantively healed through concerted efforts, (South) Korea and Japan will become genuine friends with heart-to-heart understanding," Moon said in a speech at a commemorative ceremony for the March 1 independence movement of 1919.

The Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule between 1910 and 1945.

Moon apparently had in mind South Korean Supreme Court verdicts ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation for wartime labor to South Koreans, as well as the issue of wartime comfort women forced to sexually serve soldiers of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army.

Cooperation with Japan will be "strengthened for the sake of peace on the Korean Peninsula," Moon said in an English version of his speech.

"We cannot change the past but can transform the future," he said. "When Korea and Japan firmly join hands while reflecting on history, the era of peace will approach our side with large strides."

"Wiping out the vestiges of pro-Japanese collaborators is a long-overdue undertaking," Moon said, referring to Koreans who cooperated with Japanese authorities in and around the colonial period.

"Only when we contemplate past wrongdoings can we move toward the future together. The task of setting history right is what is needed to help our future generations stand tall," he continued.

But he added: "What we intend is neither to instigate divisiveness by reopening old wounds now nor to create issues for diplomatic conflicts with a neighboring country. Neither of these is desirable."

"Wiping out the vestiges of pro-Japanese collaborators, just as with diplomacy, should be done in a forward-looking manner," Moon said.

He also referred to U.S. President Donald Trump's second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which ended in Vietnam on Thursday without an agreement.

"I believe this is part of a process to reach a higher level of agreement," Moon said, adding his administration "will closely communicate and cooperate with the United States and North Korea so as to help their talks reach a complete settlement by any means." Jiji Press