South Korean ruling party leader said Sunday that the future of
the relationship between South Korea and Japan largely depends on
how Japan looks on the countries' shared history.
Moon Hee-sang, chairman of the ruling Uri Party, made the
remarks in a written interview carried by local major news agency
Yonhap.
"The most important thing in Japan's efforts to become a world
leader is to win the trust of its neighboring countries," Moon
said. The interview was made on the occasion of the 60th
anniversary of liberation from the Japanese colonial rule.
Moon, who also co-heads a friendly association of South Korean
and Japanese legislators, said the countries will only be able to
put the past behind when there is complete trust between the
countries, but claimed Japan has yet to make sincere efforts to win
South Korea's friendship.
Moon's remarks also came on the eve of celebration of the 60th
anniversary of the liberation of the Korean Peninsula from the
Japanese colonial rule on the next Monday. Japan colonized the
Korean Peninsula from 1910 through 1945.
Moon pointed out although a number of Japanese leaders have had
offered apologies for their country's invasion and hostile
occupation of some Asian countries and regions during World War II,
but their apologies have been made "meaningless" by an equally
large number of Japanese leaders saying the opposite.
"It would not be an overstatement to say that the very
foundation of South Korea-Japan relationship depends on Japan's
recognition of correct accounts of history," he said.
"That is why we are continuously asking Japan to make a sincere
apology and reflect on its past wrong doing through action," he
added.
One way for Japan to show its sincerity, according to Moon,
would be to compensate Korean victims of its colonization.
"If Japan wishes to be viewed as a peace-loving country and
improve its friendly relationship with South Korea through true
reconciliation, Japan would have to take a lesson from Germany in
bearing its war responsibilities," he said.
As many as 200,000 women on the Korean Peninsula are believed to
have been forced to work as sex slaves for the Japanese military
during World War II, but the Japanese government continues to claim
they worked as prostitutes voluntarily and refuses to pay
reparations.
Also, millions of Korean men were either killed or forced into
labor during Japan's colonial rule of Korea.
"The mutual trust between the countries' peoples is most
important in our efforts to improve the countries' ties based on a
spirit of friendly cooperation," Moon said, calling on the Japanese
government and its people to take "extraordinary steps" to offer a
heartfelt apology and sincerely atone for its past.
Moon said the relationship between South Korea and Japan has
matured enough to survive what he called recent difficulties,
including history and territorial conflicts.
"But we still need to increase and expand mutual understanding
between the countries' peoples by supporting and promoting civilian
exchanges between the countries," he said.
The two countries had agreed to designate this year as "South
Korea-Japan Friendship Year" and planed to hold more than 700
events to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic
normalization.
But the South Korean government has been forced to cancel a
large number of the events this year, following Tokyo's approval of
textbooks that many critics here believe distort the countries'
shared past and repeated claim to a disputed islet, which both the
two countries claimed their own territory.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2005)