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Japan snubs Korean ‘comfort women’ – again

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Summary of story from Chosun, September 28, 2011

Japan’s foreign ministry has asked South Korea’s government to block plans by former World War II sex slaves to protest in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

The group of elderly women also plan to erect a memorial stone there.

The women were forced into serving Japanese soldiers as ‘comfort women‘ during World War II (see WVoN story).

This is to be their 1000th protest; tthey convene every Wednesday in front of the embassy, demanding a formal apology from Japan.

In a meeting with Liberal Democratic Party members this week, Kanji Yamanouchi, Japan’s Foreign Ministry’s councilor for Asian and Oceanian Affairs said:

“The construction [of the memorial stone] could negatively affect Japan-Korea relations and we asked Korea through working-level channels to deal appropriately with the matter.”

However, Korean officials say the monument does not require government approval and would be difficult to block.

The Korean government has continued to insist that Tokyo discusses compensation for the “comfort women,” but Japan says the issue was settled with the signing of the 1965 Korea-Japan Normalization Treaty, under which they paid US$800 million in grants and soft loans to Korea.

The protest is set to take place on December 14.

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