Roundup: S. Korea's Park urges Japan to back words with actions in historical issues

South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Saturday urged Japan to back up words with actions in historical issues, referring to the statement issued by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

"The Japanese government should back its open declaration of inheriting history perception of previous cabinets in the future with consistent and sincere actions to win trust from neighboring countries and the international society," Park said at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule.

"It is true that we felt not a little wanting in yesterday's 70th postwar anniversary statement by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe," Park said, indicating more needed to be added to his statement to express a sincere apology for the militaristic past.

In the statement on Friday, Abe mentioned that previous cabinets had apologized for Japan's wartime past, but side-stepped offering his own. Abe also said that Japan must not allow its future generations to be predestined to apologize.

Despite the insufficiency in the Abe statement for clear apology and the acknowledge of wartime atrocities, South Korea said that it would monitor what the Abe cabinet would do to inherit the right perception of history held by previous governments.

South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement that the Abe statement "clearly revealed" what type of historical view the Abe cabinet had on its colonization and aggression. Despite the view, the ministry said, South Korea will pay attention to Abe's pledges not to shake history perceptions shown by previous cabinets.

Park said that her country paid attention to Abe clearly mentioning his pledges not to shake positions of previous governments in historical issues based on apology and remorse toward Japan's aggression and colonization that inflicted much damage and sufferings to the peoples of many Asian countries and comfort women victims.

Comfort women refer to more than 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, forced into sexual slavery for the Imperial Japan's military brothels during World War II.

The president urged the Abe cabinet to rapidly resolve the comfort women issue in a right way as Abe refused to "clearly" acknowledge and apologize for the sex enslavement.

The ministry said Seoul will closely monitor what concrete action the Japanese government would take to keep its words, but the Abe cabinet showed history-revisionist acts once again on the 70th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.

Abe sent a ritual offering Saturday to the shrine, a symbol of Japan's militaristic past as it honors 14 convicted war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, and about 2.5 million war dead in World War II and other conflicts.

Dozens of politicians and members of the Abe cabinet also visited the war shrine, enraging neighboring countries as it reminds the neighbors of the painful history of colonization and war aggression by the militaristic Japan.

Seoul's foreign ministry said in a separate statement that the country wanted Japan to be reminded of what the Abe statement declared, or pledges not to shake history perceptions of previous cabinets, urging Tokyo to show its sincere self-reflection and apology with actions.

Since bilateral relations between Seoul and Tokyo were normalized in 1965, history perceptions shown in previous statements, including the Kono Statement and Murayama Statement, have been a foundation sustaining the bilateral relations, Park said.

Park said that history cannot be glossed over, but has been alive with testimonies of living witnesses. She hoped that Japan would join the path of sharing peace in Northeast Asia as a neighboring country with open mind.

The Kono statement refers to an official apology made in 1993 by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, who acknowledged the imperialistic Japan was involved in the recruitment of the comfort women.

The Murayama statement apologized to its Asian neighbors that had suffered from Japan's colonization, war of aggression and wartime brutalities under its militaristic past. Endi