Will comfort women debate tarnish Korea-Japan summit?

Tension is running high between Korea and Japan over "comfort women," or those forced by the Japanese military to provide sex to Japanese soldiers in World War II ahead of a bilateral summit this weekend.

Tokyo reaffirmed its position that it rejects Seoul`s proposal for bilateral talks, claiming that damages for Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula has been settled. Korea said it will seek international arbitration if Japan refuses bilateral negotiations.

Shinsuke Sugiyama, director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry`s Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau, told a news conference at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul Thursday that his country never said it would refuse to respond to proposals for bilateral talks.

On Tokyo`s refusal to respond to Seoul`s proposal for bilateral talks on paying compensation to the victims, he said the Japanese government clearly conveyed its message to Korea, claiming that Japan has the understanding of the international community.

The comments are a repeat of Tokyo`s position that Seoul`s claims for compensation for Japanese colonial rule was “totally resolved” by the 1965 bilateral treaty that formed ties between both sides. Critics said it is unusual for a working-level diplomat to attack a host country through a news conference before a bilateral summit, calling such behavior diplomatically impolite.

On a newly unveiled statue dedicated to the sexual slavery victims in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to mark the 1,000th weekly rally Wednesday by a Korean civic group campaigning for the victims, Sugiyama said the Japanese ambassador to Korea Muto Masatoshi had delivered a clear message on Japan`s position, adding the ambassador`s call for the statue`s removal was Tokyo`s official position.

A spokesman for the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry in Seoul said in a regular news briefing, "The comfort women issue is a fundamental issue for women`s rights and humanitarianism and cannot be resolved by the 1965 agreement," adding, "If the Japanese government fails to respond to the proposal for bilateral talks, the Korean government has no choice but to take arbitration procedures as stipulated by the 1965 agreement."

The spokesman said Seoul cannot order the statue to be removed or relocated, adding, "Rather than demanding that the peace statue be removed, the Japanese government should sincerely contemplate why the victims have continued such difficult rallies every week for 20 years and if there is really no way for them to recovery their honor that they want so much."

"Since President Lee Myung-bak is well aware of the nature of the problem and public sentiment about it, there will be consultations of an appropriate level on the issue (in the Korea-Japan summit)."

shcho@donga.com