KOREA, JAPAN AND THE “COMFORT WOMEN” ISSUE

LEE URGES JAPAN TO 'MUSTER UP COURAGE' TO RESOLVE 'COMFORT WOMEN' ISSUE

Chang Jae-soon

Yonhap News

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged Japan Sunday to "muster up courage" and resolve long-running grievances over Tokyo's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, calling the issue a "stumbling block" to the improvement in relations between the two countries.

Lee made the appeal during summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held in this ancient Japanese city of Kyoto under the shadow of fresh tensions over the issue of the so-called "comfort women."

Historians say that tens of thousands of Asian women, mostly Koreans, were forced to work at front-line brothels for Japanese soldiers during the war. Korea was a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945.

"South Korea and Japan should become true partners for peace and stability in the region, and for that, we need to have the genuine courage of resolving as a priority the issue of military comfort women, which has been a stumbling block between the two countries," Lee said at the start of the meeting.

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