S. Korea president says Abe speech left ‘much to be desired’

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye. AFP FILE PHOTO

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said Saturday that a speech by Japan’s prime minister expressing deep remorse for his country’s actions in World War II had fallen short of Seoul’s expectations.

“It is true that the prime minister’s statement made (on Friday) left much to be desired,” Park said in a speech marking the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II that ended its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

While noting Shinzo Abe’s vow that previous national apologies for Japan’s aggression would stand, Park said Tokyo must follow-up with “sincere actions” that could earn the trust of neighboring countries.

And she particularly stressed the need for the Japanese government to resolve, “at the earliest possible date,” the issue of Asian women forced to work as sex slaves for the military in Japanese wartime brothels.

The so-called “comfort women” issue is an extremely emotive one in South Korea, where less than 50 of the thousands of women coerced into prostitution remain alive.

Abe had alluded to the subject in his speech when he said the women “whose honor and dignity were severely injured” behind the battlefields, should never be forgotten.

South Korea insists Japan has yet to fully atone for the suffering the comfort women went through and should offer further reparations.

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