Japanese ambassador to return Tuesday
By Yi Whan-woo
Yasumasa Nagamine
Japanese Ambassador to Korea Yasumasa Nagamine will return to Seoul, Tuesday, about three months after Tokyo recalled him amid a diplomatic row over “comfort women,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday.
“Japan notified us that Ambassador Nagamine will come back here,” a ministry official said, without giving further details.
Nagamine has been out of Korea for 84 days - the longest absence of a Japanese ambassador to Korea.
Japan summoned him Jan. 9 in retaliation for Korea’s “lack of commitment” to remove a statue of a girl set up outside the Japanese consulate in Busan.
Tokyo said the statue, which symbolizes former Korean sex slaves, was against a bilateral agreement reached in December 2015 to end the dispute over so-called “comfort women.”
The foreign ministry said Japanese Consul General to Korea Yasuhiro Morimoto will also return. Japan also summoned Morimoto from Busan, Jan. 9.
“We expect the two countries will work more closely on their relationship on the occasion of Nagamine’s return,” the ministry official said.
The statue in Busan was set up amid a controversy over the original girl statue installed outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in December 2011.
Japan has argued that Korea agreed to remove that statue in return for receiving 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) to help the surviving “comfort women” in their December 2015 deal.