South Korea and Japan conclude ministerial talks

Apr 1, 2007, 9:39 GMT

Seoul/Cheju - The foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan on Sunday concluded talks on the South Korean resort island of Cheju concerning agreements reached in the six-party nuclear talks process as well as the thorny issue of Japan's war past.

The two sides apparently failed to narrow their differences on the issue of Japan having allegedly forced thousands of Korean women to work in military-run brothels during the Second World War, South Korean state news agency Yonhap reported.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon had on Saturday repeated Seoul's call on Japan to appropriately deal with the matter.

The responsibility for 'removing the cloud over our head,' was with the people who lived 'here and now,' Song was quoted as saying on the opening day of the two-day meeting with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso.

The long-running dispute was reignited in recent weeks after comments made by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who said at the beginning of March that there was no proof women had been forced to work in Japanese military brothels.

Abe later reiterated that his government stood by a 1993 apology issued by Japan, but the controversy is among a number of issues threatening to strain ties between Tokyo and Seoul, Yonhap reported Sunday.

Up to 200,000 women in Korea, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines were allegedly forced into prostitution by the Japanese army.

The ministers however were in agreement in other areas, including ways to increase exchanges and cooperation between their countries and bring an early end to the dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Yonhap said citing officials from both sides.

The two agreed to hold high-level security talks in May, Kim Jae- shin, a Foreign Ministry official in charge of Northeast Asian affairs, was quoted as saying.

Pyongyang had in the course of six-party talks involving North Korea, the US, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia agreed in February on a timetable to end its nuclear programme.

However the last round of six-nations talks last week had broken down without results when North Korea refused to continue with the negotiations until it could regain access to 25 million dollars in frozen funds.

It is yet unclear when the talks will be continued.