Blinken hails ‘historic’ South Korea announcement on Japan
WASHINGTON: US high diplomat Antony Blinken on Sunday applauded plans introduced by South Korea to compensate victims of Japan’s compelled wartime labor, as Seoul seems to be to forge nearer ties with Tokyo.
South Korea and Japan are “two of america’ most necessary allies, and we’re impressed by the work they’ve accomplished to advance their bilateral relations,” the Secretary of State mentioned in an announcement.
The trilateral relationship is “central to our shared imaginative and prescient of a free and open Indo-Pacific area,” he added.
“We applaud (Seoul and Tokyo) for his or her braveness and imaginative and prescient, and name on the worldwide group to affix our commendation of this momentous achievement.”
The choice by Seoul comes as South Korea and Japan have ramped up safety cooperation within the face of rising threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.
However bilateral ties have lengthy been strained over Tokyo’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
Round 780,000 Koreans have been conscripted into compelled labor by Japan through the 35-year occupation, in line with information from Seoul, not together with ladies compelled into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.
Seoul’s plan is to take cash from main South Korean firms that benefited from a 1965 reparations cope with Tokyo and use it to compensate victims, South Korea’s Overseas Minister Park Jin mentioned.
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Victims have criticized the proposal as a result of it falls far wanting their demand for a full apology from Tokyo and direct compensation from the Japanese firms concerned.
