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S. Korea, Japan expand territorial, historical disputes after "comfort women" statue erection

Xinhua, January 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

Territorial and historical disputes between South Korea and Japan exacerbated after a girl statue symbolizing teenage South Korean victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery was erected last month outside a Japanese consulate.

Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday that it was deplorable for the Japanese government to lay unjust claims once again to the country's easternmost islets of Dokdo, called Takeshima in Japan.

The spokesman urged Japan to stop any groundless claims to the Dokdo, which he said is South Korea's indigenous territory. South Korea restored sovereignty to the rocky outcroppings after liberating from the 1910-45 Japanese colonization.

The comments came after Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said putting up any "comfort women" statue in the islets cannot be accepted because Takeshima belongs to his country.

A group of South Korea's Gyeonggi provincial assembly members said Monday that a fundraising campaign will be conducted to build another girl statue in Dokdo islets.

Japan recalled last week its ambassador to South Korea in Seoul and its consul general in South Korea's southern port city of Busan after South Korean civic group activists installed a bronze, life-size statue of a teenage girl near the Japanese consulate in Busan in December.

The statue of the seated girl, dressed in traditional Korean costume, represents the "comfort women" victims, who were forced into sex enslavement for the Japanese military brothels before and during World War Two.

The first statue of a girl was erected in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul in December 2011. Enditem