hankyoreh

Director General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau

By Yi Yong-in, staff reporter

The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Apr. 13 that South Korean and Japanese director generals would meet in Seoul on Apr. 16 for the sole purpose of discussing the issue of the comfort women, who were forced to serve as sexual slaves by the Japanese imperial army during World War II. This is the first time that a diplomatic channel has been created for talks between South Korea and Japan about the issue of the comfort women, but the chances of getting results appear small.

From South Korea, joining the talks will be Lee Sang-deok, director general of the Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau, and Junichi Ihara, Director General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. But given the fact that South Korean and Japan are at odds about finding a solution to the comfort women issue, there is virtually no chance that a real solution to the problem will emerge from these deliberations.

Japan is of the opinion that the comfort women issue was legally resolved by the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Seoul and Tokyo, which waived South Koreans’ right to make further claims. South Korea, however, insists that the comfort women issue was not addressed in the agreement and is asking the Japanese government for an official apology and for compensation.

Consequently, the meeting of director generals from the two countries could be mostly about complying with American requests to create an appearance of making amends before US President Barack Obama visits both South Korea and Japan at the end of April.

Furthermore, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it intends to enhance existing deliberations with Japanese diplomats of all levels, beginning with working-level talks and moving up to meetings between bureau chiefs and even deputy ministers. As this suggests, the Ministry seems to be using the director general meeting as a way to improve relations with Japan. The Ministry indicated that it is planning to continue director general deliberations about the comfort women.

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