(3rd LD) S. Korea urges Japan to address colonial-era atrocities

(ATTN: ADDS foreign minister's comment, more info in paras 6, 9, 10)

SEOUL, Oct. 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's national security adviser urged Japan Tuesday to resolve grievances over Tokyo's colonial-era atrocities, including the sexual enslavement of Korean women for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Kim Kwan-jin met with his Japanese counterpart Shotaro Yachi and discussed a range of issues, including bilateral relations and their policies for North Korea, the South's presidential office said in a news release.

Kim called for sincere efforts to build future-oriented ties as the two countries next year mark 50 years since they normalized their bilateral relations.

"For this, it is most important for Japan's political leaders to make sincere efforts to heal the wounds of the past," Cheong Wa Dae quoted Kim as saying. "In particular, resolving the issue of the wartime sex slaves is the most important core issue." Yachi, who arrived in Seoul earlier in the day, also called for improving bilateral relations ahead of the 50th anniversary, saying the two countries share "strategic interests" as each other's closest neighbors.

Following the meeting with Kim, Yachi also met with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se. Yun stressed that solving the sex slave issue is important for stable development in bilateral ties, according to a government official.

"Korea-Japan relations have been clouded with historical issues," Yun was quoted as saying. "In order to strengthen close cooperation on North Korean affairs among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, we should work on improving bilateral ties."

Yachi's visit comes amid Japan's push to repair bilateral relations and set up a summit between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

South Korea has said a summit could occur if Japan takes measures to demonstrate its sincerity on the issue of elderly South Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japan's World War II soldiers.

But the Foreign ministry official noted that Yachi did not mention a possible Park-Abe meeting during talks with him.

"(Japan) knows what we want for the summit meeting," Yun said. "We will see whether Japan will live up to its words."

Seoul and Tokyo have long been at odds over Japan's territorial claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo as well as the South Korean sex slaves.

Last week, Abe said before leaving for Italy that it would be good if he has a chance to talk to Park on the sidelines of a biennial summit of Asian and European leaders.

Park met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and held two separate talks with her Danish and French counterparts on the sidelines of the summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan.

Still, Park did not even meet with Abe, the latest sign that underscored the deep division between the two neighbors over historical disputes stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Park has shunned a summit with Abe, though they met in a trilateral summit with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in the Netherlands in March. It was the first summit between Seoul and Tokyo in nearly two years.
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