TOKYO (Kyodoa) -- Japan will return its ambassador to South Korea on Tuesday after recently recalling him over a dispute related to the issue of Korean women forced to work in wartime Japanese military brothels, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said.
Monday's decision to return Ambassador Yasumasa Nagamine to Seoul comes despite the absence of progress on the issue surrounding what is euphemistically known in Japan as "comfort women." The move indicates Tokyo is prioritizing coordination with South Korea's next administration in dealing with the developing North Korean nuclear threat.
At a hastily arranged press event, Kishida cited the "need for close information sharing at a high level" in addressing North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and also the need to prepare for the May 9 presidential election in South Korea after the country's president was ousted due to links to a corruption scandal.
Nagamine returned to Japan on Jan. 9 after a statue symbolizing comfort women was erected by a citizens' group in the southern port city of Busan. Tokyo claims the action contravenes a 2015 bilateral agreement to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the "comfort women" issue between the two countries.
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