SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said Tuesday Japan's emperor should sincerely apologize for the country's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula if he wants to visit South Korea, pressing Tokyo harder to resolve colonial-era issues following his surprise visit to the eastern islets of Dokdo.
The remark came on the eve of Liberation Day marking Korea's independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, and is expected to further raise the already high tensions in the wake of Lee's trip to the East Sea islets that Japan has claimed as its territory.
It was the first time Lee has explicitly demanded an apology from Japan's emperor.
If Japan's emperor "wishes to visit South Korea, I think it would be good if he apologizes sincerely to those who passed away while fighting for independence," Lee said during a meeting with teachers on how to prevent school violence at a local teachers' university.
The emperor "does not need to come" if he is going to offer an insincere apology couched in vague language, Lee said, referring to the hard-to-understand, ancient wording that Japanese Emperor Akihito used in his 1990 apology for the colonial rule.
 |
Lee said his visit to Dokdo, which was the first-ever by a South Korean president, had been planned for two to three years, stressing it was not an impromptu decision. A day earlier, Lee said he decided to make the trip to show through action that Japan needs to sincerely atone for its past wrongdoing.
Lack of progress in efforts to resolve issues stemming from the brutal colonial rule, such as Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, has kept South Korea from fully opening its heart to Japan and moving relations between the two countries forward, Lee said.
"I have made state visits to many countries, but not to Japan," Lee said. "Though we do the 'shuttle diplomacy,' I would do so (making a state visit to Japan) if I am allowed to speak at Japan's parliament on whatever I want to speak about at my will."
"Shuttle diplomacy" refers to an agreement between the two countries to hold summits in one another's countries on a regular basis.
Lee also said that Japan is a much bigger nation than South Korea in various terms, and therefore, should act in a way that matches its national power and resolve colonial-era issues.
"Japan is a top nation in the world, isn't it? Though China has grown, Japan is substantially the No. 2 country. There are large gaps with us as well, such as in science and technology, social systems and others," Lee said. "As Japan wrongly understands the positions of offenders and victims, I intend to get it to realize that," Lee said.
Japan's harsh colonial rule left deep scars on the hearts of Koreans. During that period, Koreans were banned from using their own language at schools and forced to adopt Japanese names. Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were mobilized as forced laborers and also as sex slaves, euphemistically called "comfort women."
Japan's emperor has never visited South Korea amid lingering resentment over the colonial rule.
Tokyo has long laid claims to Dokdo in school textbooks, government reports and other ways, undercutting better ties between the neighboring nations, along with its refusal to resolve issues such as the comfort women stemming from the colonial rule.
South Korea has rejected the claims to Dokdo as amounting to denying Korea's rights because the country regained independence from colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula. Koreans also view the claims as a sign Japan has not fully repented for its imperialist past.
South Korea has kept a small police detachment on Dokdo since 1954.
jschang@yna.co.kr
(END)
