Roundup: Progress in resolving "comfort women" issue key to improving S. Korea-Japan ties: S. Korean FM

Visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida Sunday that making progress in resolving the "comfort women" issue is key to improving bilateral ties, but the two sides showed some rapprochement efforts by reaching agreements regarding a series of Japanese industrial sites to be enlisted on the UN heritage list.

Ties between Japan and South Korea are frayed mainly for the Japanese historical revisionist government which constantly denies or whitewash the historical fact that about 200,000 women who mainly came from the Korean Peninsula were forcibly recruited as sex slaves in military brothels run by the Japanese Imperial Army.

Yun's visit marked the first South Korean top diplomat's trip to Japan in four years amid a backdrop of strained ties. His visit came one day ahead of the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries and is widely considered as a move to show South Korean President Park Geun-hye's willingness to improve ties with Japan.

But gaps between the two sides over the "comfort women" issue remain deep as the South Korean side insists that the Japanese government should take the legal responsibility on the "forcibly recruited comfort women" issue, while Japan holds is stance that the compensation over the issue was done.

Former South Korean comfort women survivors are still suing the Japanese government and demand compensation and apology.

The Japanese side in bilateral working-level talks over the issue has demanded South Korea stop using "sex slaves" to refer to the "comfort women," but was rejected by the latter, reported Japan's Kyodo News, citing diplomatic sources familiar with bilateral issues.

Then Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono issued a statement offering apology to the "comfort women" victims and admitting that the then Japanese government and military directly involved in managing and forcibly recruiting women in the wartime brothels, but incumbent Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied that there is evidence showing the victims were forcibly recruited and trying to dilute the world-recognized 1993 Kono Statement in his new statement to be issued in the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

No joint press conference was held and no joint statement was issued after the meeting between Kishida and Yun, but Kishida told reporters after the meeting that the two countries will continue to negotiate over the issue.

Kishida said that Yun invited him to visit South Korea within the year and they agreed to hold bilateral summit at "appropriate time," and to arrange a trilateral summit with China hopefully in this year, Japan's Kyodo News cited the minister as saying.

On the series of Japan's historical industrial sites that Japan pushed forward to be enlisted in the UNESCO World Heritage List, the two sides bridged their divergences during the meeting and agreed to help each other to enlist their sites on the list, according to local report.

Japan aims to register the "Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution," which represent Japan's industrialization in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, but South Korea originally opposed the move as some 60,000 Koreans were conscripted to work at some of the 23 sites during WWII as forced labors.

According to Kishida, the two sides will cooperate on the issue since Japan will also help South Korea to enlist its historic Baekje sites on the list.

Relations between the two neighbors are also crippled due to territorial dispute over a pair of small islands. They islets are controlled by South Korea as the Dokdo and are claimed by Japan which called them as "Takeshima."

About 100 Japanese nationalists rallied outside the Japanese Foreign Ministry during the Kishida-Yun meeting Sunday calling for breaking ties with South Korea.

The two countries normalized their diplomatic ties in post-WWII era on June 22 in 1965. And South Korean embassy in Tokyo will hold a reception here on Monday to commemorate the event.

Local reports said that Japanese prime minister will attend the event and South Korean president Park will also attend a similar event to be held the same day in Seoul in the Japanese Embassy in the South Korean capital.

Park suggested earlier that her country will carry out "two- race" diplomacy toward Japan in which South Korea will resolutely negotiate with Japan over historical issues, including the " comfort women" issue and, on the other hand, the country will seek to enhance cooperation with Japan in economic area and security area due to the U.S. urge.

So far, the Japanese and South Korean leaders have not yet held official face-to-face talks since they took office in late 2012 and early 2013 respectively. Endi