S. Korea proposes talks with Japan over wartime sex slaves

(ATTN: ADDS fresh quotes, details in paras 5-8) SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Thursday proposed holding talks with Japan to discuss the issue of Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, an issue that has long been one of the thorns in relations between the two nations. The Foreign Ministry called in Nobukatsu Kanehara, Japan's deputy chief of mission in Seoul, earlier in the day and delivered the proposal to the Japanese government, ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said. The move comes after the Constitutional Court ruled late last month that it is unconstitutional for Seoul to not take any action over the dispute between the victims, who were forced to serve Japan's military, and Tokyo, which refuses to compensate them. "We hope to soon hold bilateral consultations with Japan on the issue," Cho said. It remains unclear whether Japan would accept the proposal as Tokyo has refused to pay direct compensation to any of the victims, saying all claims were settled by a 1965 package compensation deal the two countries reached while normalizing diplomatic relations. Asked how Japan would respond to the proposal, Cho replied, "For the time being, we will focus on making diplomatic efforts to arrange the bilateral consultations." South Korean officials have hinted that they will ask Japan to form an arbitration panel under the bilateral Claims Settlement Agreement unless Tokyo accepts the proposal. "The formation of the arbitration committee could also be taken into consideration as an option," Cho said. Since the Aug. 30 ruling, South Korea has conducted thorough legal and diplomatic reviews of the issue of the former sex slaves, euphemistically called "comfort women." Comfort women have been one of the most emotional unresolved issues between South Korea and Japan. The Korean Peninsula was under Japan's brutal colonial rule from 1910-45 that ended with Tokyo's World War II defeat. According to historians, up to 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were coerced into sexual servitude at front-line Japanese brothels during World War II. Japan has acknowledged its wartime military used sex slaves, but refuses to directly compensate or apologize to victims individually, maintaining that all claims were settled with South Korea by the postwar Treaty of Basic Relations with South Korea in 1965. kdh