Japan denies progress on 'comfort women'

By Yi Whan-woo

Japan denied President Park Geun-hye’s remarks that there had been progress in negotiations on sexual slavery during World War II, a day after an interview she gave was published saying this was the case.

The issue has been a key obstacle to Seoul-Tokyo ties because Japan remains reluctant to heed Korea’s call for sincere, concrete, measures to resolve it.

“I think she was speaking comprehensively about the subject when she said negotiations were in the final stage,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said Sunday on condition of anonymity. “This is not something I can comment about in detail.”

In an interview released online by The Washington Post on June 11, Park said, “There has been considerable progress on the issue of the comfort women.” The term, “comfort women,” is a euphemism for the women, mostly Koreans, who were forced into military brothels for Japanese soldiers during the war.

“We are in the final stage of our negotiations, so I think we can expect to look forward to a very meaningful 50th anniversary of the normalization of our diplomatic ties,” Park added.

The President did not elaborate, saying the discussions had been made “behind the scenes.”

In an Asahi Shinbun report on Saturday, a Japanese foreign ministry official said it was difficult to “assess from what perspectives Park described the situation as ‘considerable progress.’”

Seoul’s foreign ministry official also played down Park’s evaluation.

“It would sound odd to say there was not ‘considerable’ progress considering the two sides met eight times,” he said.

Led by Lee Sang-deok, the foreign ministry’s director-general of the Northeast Asia affairs bureau, and his Japanese counterpart, Junichi Ihara, the countries have held talks on the issue eight times since April 2014. The latest meeting was in Tokyo on June 11.

Meanwhile, a Japanese government source said Park’s comments represented “a softening attitude by Korea,” according to The Asahi Shinbum.

Park’s optimistic assessment came after she has been criticized of being too stubborn regarding her Korea-Japan policy.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has fallen short of renewing Tokyo’s apology over sexual slavery.

Since taking office in February 2013, Park has refused Abe’s offer to hold a bilateral summit. She said progress on the issue of sexual enslavement of Korean women was a pre-condition for the summit.

However, her stance has triggered speculation that Seoul may be isolated between Washington and Tokyo which have been bolstering their ties.