Japan lodges protest after Moon says 'comfort women issue not settled'

Japan said on Thursday it had lodged a complaint with the South Korean government after President Moon Jae-in said Tokyo was in no position to declare the issue of wartime “comfort women” settled.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga described Moon’s comments as “extremely regrettable.” Suga, speaking at a regular briefing, also urged cooperation between South Korea and Japan to tackle North Korea.

Japan agreed to apologize to former comfort women and provided a 1 billion yen ($9.38 million) fund to help them under a 2015 deal between the two countries. South Korea later said it failed to meet victims’ needs and called for more steps.

Japan and South Korea share a bitter history that includes Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of the peninsula and the use of comfort women, Japan’s euphemism for women - many of them Korean ― forced to work in its wartime brothels. (REUTERS)