hankyoreh

third from right

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent and Kim Oi-hyun, staff reporter

A diplomatic row has broken out in Washington, D.C., between South Korea and Japan about the Japanese government’s review report on the Kono Statement. The recent review report basically denies that women from Korea and other countries were forced to serve as sex slaves for the imperial Japanese army.

Cho Tae-yong, South Korea’s First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is currently on a trip to Washington, held strategic talks with William Burns, US Deputy Secretary of State, at the Pentagon on June 24. During the meeting, Cho conveyed the South Korean government’s intense regret about the Japanese government report on the Kono Statement.

Meeting with correspondents from South Korean media outlets after the meeting, Cho said, “During today’s strategic meeting, we discussed a number of historical issues with the Japanese government, including the government report on its review of the Kono Statement. I explained the South Korean government’s position in detail.”

William Burns reportedly responded only by reiterating the standard US position that Japanese acceptance of the Kono Statement is important for improving relations with its neighbors. Before his visit to the US, Cho summoned Koro Bessho, Japanese ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to express a strong complaint. “The Abe administration needs to know that, the more it tries to chip away at the Koono Statement, the more its credibility and international reputation will suffer,” Cho told the Japanese ambassador.

The Japanese Embassy in the US wrote a paper in English justifying its position on June 20 and has been sending this via email to scholars and experts working at think tanks in Washington, sources said on June 24.

“The report is an objective summary of research results by experts and scholars outside of the government about the process of drafting the Kono Statement; it is certainly not intended to disparage the Kono Statement,” the paper said.

“South Korea and Japan had extensive negotiations about the Kono Statement. The statement emerged from deliberations between the two countries, and it was intended to bring a diplomatic close to the issue of the comfort women and to establish forward-looking bilateral relations.”

The paper appears to be a two-pronged attack aimed at reassuring the US, which is displeased with Japan’s attempts to shirk responsibility for the comfort women issue, while also creating the impression that the Kono Statement was the product of political compromise with South Korea.

The aftermath of the Japanese report on the Kono Statement may well keep Japan-Korea talks about the comfort women from taking place this month. The talks, which are held between high-ranking Korean and Japanese diplomats, started in April and are supposed to be held every month. Japan proposed holding the meeting this week, but Korea declined the proposal, reports say. The talks were held in Seoul in April, in Tokyo in May, and were supposed to take place in Seoul again this month.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]