hankyoreh

Dec. 18. (AP Yonhap)

By Ahn Chang-hyun, Staff Writer

On Sunday, at a Korea-Japan summit meeting in Kyoto, President Lee Myung-bak strongly urged Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to take priority in resolving the issue of comfort women who had been coerced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War II. In response, Noda demanded the removal of the “Peace Monument” that has been put up in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, and even mentioned the territorial issue of Dokdo at a press conference following the summit.

At the summit, at a reception hall in Kyoto, Lee said to Noda, “The comfort women issue is one that can be solved immediately if the Japanese government changes its understanding of it. I hope that you will take a leading role to bring about a solution, and I look forward to a significant political decision,” Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Park Jeong-ha reported. Noda answered at a theoretical level, saying, “We, too, have collaborated with humanitarian consideration and will continue in future, too, to find wisdom from a humanitarian point of view.” He also said, “The building of the Peace Monumentl is regrettable. I request that you have it demolished.

Lee responded immediately by saying, “Another monument will be built each time one of the elderly former comfort women dies, unless sincere measures are taken.” Regarding the meeting, which lasted around one hour, Park said, “President Lee spoke of nothing, even economic problems, other than the comfort women issue. The atmosphere was very tense and finished in a regrettable manner.”

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that, at a press conference following the summit meeting, Noda stated “On Saturday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Koichiro Gemba met a senior presidential secretary at Cheong Wa Dae and protested that [Dokdo] was Japan’s own territory. Regarding this, Park reported, “On Saturday, when members of [the Korean] entourage were waiting before a banquet between the two heads of state, Gemba approached senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs Chun Young-woo and said that. Chun did not answer, but mentioned that when a broad decision was reached on past issues, developments between the two countries would become possible.”

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