Ex-Japanese PM urges Tokyo to resolve sex slave issue

SEOUL, May 20 (Yonhap) -- Japan should move first to resolve the ongoing row with South Korea over the Japanese military's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, a former Japanese prime minister said Wednesday. Tomiichi Murayama made the remark during the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul, saying that the sex slave issue must be resolved through a bilateral summit and other forms of dialogue. The former Japanese leader issued a statement while in office in 1995, acknowledging and apologizing for the suffering his country inflicted on neighboring nations, including Korea, through its aggressions in the early part of the 20th century. "As it was Japan that created the comfort women issue, it's only fair that Japan should resolve it," he said, using the euphemistic term for the sex slaves. "Japan must resolve the issue first." Historians estimate that more than 200,000 Asian women, mostly Koreans, were forced into sexual servitude for Japan's World War II soldiers. Japan, which ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910-45, has refused to take any responsibility for the issue, arguing that it was done by civilian pimps. Murayama expressed hope that the two neighbors would help each other and grow together. On the Shinzo Abe administration's apparent moves to amend Japan's Pacifist Constitution to enable the country to fight a war, he stressed that the constitution is "deeply rooted" in the Japanese people and they would never let a path for war be opened. hague@yna.co.kr (END)