Japan, S. Korea Nearly Agreed to Settle Comfort Women Issue

Seoul, Jan. 29 (Jiji Press)--Japan and South Korea were about to agree on terms for settling the longstanding issue of "comfort women" prostitutes used by Japanese troops before and during World War II, according to a memoir of Lee Myung-bak, South Korea's previous president. The memoir, to be published Monday, reveals that the leaders of the two countries were scheduled to meet on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations events in November 2012 to finalize the deal. But the meeting was never realized because then Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda dissolved the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japanese parliament, in mid-November that year for a snap election in the following month. The unrealized deal was crafted after South Korean Ambassador for Press and Cultural Cooperation Lee Dong-kwan and Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tsuyoshi Saito met in October 2012. The deal would have called for Noda to send letters of apology to former comfort women in South Korea and pay compensation from government coffers. Japan and South Korea were "just one step away from the goal," Lee recalled. Meanwhile, Lee said in the memoir that his unprecedented visit to the Sea of Japan islands of Takeshima in August 2012 was something he planned to do as president before his inauguration. The visit to the islands at the center of a territorial dispute between the two countries caused the bilateral relationship to sour. The islands, called Dokdo in South Korea, are under Seoul's effective control and claimed by Tokyo. Despite concerns within the South Korean government that the visit could destabilize areas around the islands, Lee pressed ahead with the plan in order to make clear to the international community that the islands belong to South Korea, he noted. Lee's memoir also mentions the controversy in the same year after he said that if Japanese Emperor Akihito hoped to visit South Korea, he would have to apologize for Koreans who died in the independence movement under Japan's colonial rule. His remark, which sparked a huge backlash from Japan, was in reference to West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, who during a visit to Poland in 1970 knelt before the Warsaw memorial for Nazi victims and asked forgiveness, Lee said. Elsewhere in the memoir, Lee said that, during a meeting with then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in September 2012, he warned that the growing influence of ultrarightists in Japan should be carefully watched as they could obstruct cooperation between the three countries. Clinton expressed her agreement, According to Lee. END