Pres. Lee to press Japan on sex slaves in nat`l holiday speech

President Lee Myung-bak is expected to press Japan to change its attitude over its sexual enslavement of Korean women in World War II in his March 1 Pro-independence Movement Day speech Thursday.

A high-ranking official at the presidential office said Wednesday, "President Lee prepared his commemorative speech with emphasis on building future-oriented relations with Japan," adding, "He`s expected to demand that the Japanese government show humility to former sex slaves as a humanitarian action for a healthy bilateral relationship." President Lee will use the term "military comfort women," which the Korean government has been using since the mid-1990s.

In his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Kyoto, Japan, in December last year, President Lee urged Noda to "exercise courage" in resolving the comfort women issue. The Japanese leader, however, demanded that Seoul remove a peace monument set up in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to commemorate the 1,000th Wednesday rally by former sex slaves.

With bilateral tension rising over the dispute, how Japan will respond to President Lee`s speech is attracting attention.

"Since President Lee will touch on the past and future issues in an balanced manner, there`s no reason for bilateral relations to worsen," an official at the presidential office said.

While refraining from talking of past incidents including territorial claims to the Dokdo islet and disputed content of Japanese history textbooks, President Lee is expected to say the past should not burden the next generation. In last year`s March 1 speech, he urged Tokyo to show a sincere attitude and action but did not touch on details of past incidents, and in 2010, he said nothing on the history of the two nations.

srkim@donga.com