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| South Korean President Moon Jae In |
SEOUL (Kyodo) -- South Korean President Moon Jae In told an envoy of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday that the divisive issue of women forced into wartime brothels for the Japanese military should not impede the development of bilateral ties.
Moon, who took office last month, was quoted by the presidential office as telling Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, that the South Korean people cannot accept a landmark 2015 deal between Tokyo and Seoul to resolve the two countries' long-running feud over the issue.
"The candid reality is the South Korean people don't accept the agreement on the comfort women, and, more than anything else, those comfort women don't accept the deal," Park Soo Hyun, South Korean presidential spokesman, quoted the president as telling Nikai.
He made the remark after carefully reading a personal letter from Abe that Nikai delivered to him.
Moon said Japan should look squarely at the comfort women issue and that both countries should understand more time is needed for this issue.
"However, South Korea and Japan should not be in a situation where developments in other areas are hampered after being tied up only to this problem," Park quoted Moon as saying.
Japan and South Korea struck the landmark deal in December 2015 to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the long-standing comfort women row.
Read the full story at The Mainichi
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PacificSentinel: Unfortunately, I don't see the South Korean's ever getting over/forgiving Japan for the whole "comfort women" issue, no matter what Japan does, until the women involved have died, it's just a far to emotionally charged issue. It's a pity, the region and world would benefit if they worked together against North Korea in a more coordinated way.