S. Korea calls for rapid resolution of wartime sex slavery issue with Japan

South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday called for a rapid resolution of the wartime sex slavery issue with Japan in her first remarks on it after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Seoul about a week earlier.

"(I and Abe) held a (South) Korea-Japan summit meeting and agreed to speed up talks for rapid agreement on the comfort women issue. I hope the issue be resolved at an earliest possible date," Park said during a cabinet meeting.

Park and Abe met in Seoul on Nov. 2 on the sidelines of the trilateral leadership meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that was held in Seoul the previous day for the first time in more than three years.

It was the first-ever one-on-one summit between Park and Abe as Park had refused to sit down with Abe amid historical disputes especially over Japan's sex slavery of Korean women during World War II.

South Korea has called on Abe to make a "sincere" apology and properly compensate for Korean comfort women, who were forced into sex slavery for Japanese military brothels during the devastating war.

Japan, however, has claimed that the issue was resolved in a 1965 treaty that normalized diplomatic ties between Seoul and Tokyo. Several rounds of diplomatic talks have been held for the issue, ending up with no fruits.

South Korean historians estimate that more than 200,000 women, mostly from the Korean peninsula, were forced to serve as sex slaves during the devastating war. Surviving sex slavery victims are gradually passing away as their age averages nearly 90, with only 47 being alive in South Korea.

Park said that the sixth round of the trilateral summit between Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo has a historical meaning as it opened a place for bilateral and trilateral talks.

The president urged cabinet officials to strengthen diplomatic efforts to maintain such momentum of trilateral cooperation down the road. Enditem