Seoul snubs Japanese envoy on return

SEOUL South Korea's ties with Tokyo frayed further Thursday, when Seoul rebuffed a request for high-level talks from Japanese Ambassador Yasumasa Nagamine. The envoy returned to South Korea on Tuesday after an 85-day recall protesting the breakdown of a 2015 deal under which Tokyo promised to compensate victims of colonial era sexual slavery of South Korean women. Nagamine was recalled amid a diplomatic row over a commemorative statue in honour of former sex slaves, which was placed by South Korean activists outside the Japanese consulate in the southern port city of Busan late last year. Tokyo was particularly unhappy about the statue, and demanded its immediate removal. Nagamine asked to meet acting President Hwang Kyo-ah, Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo and Defense Minister Han Min-koo immediately after returning to South Korea. He told reporters Tuesday that he was instructed by the Japanese government to seek high-level meetings on the matter "right away". "I think it is inappropriate to make such a remark related to a visit to the head of a foreign country at a time when no bilateral coordination has been made," Seoul's Foreign Ministry spokesperson told reporters according to local news agency Yonhap. Later on Thursday, Nagamine was able to meet with South Korea's senior presidential secretary. However, any hopes of fulfilling the 2015 agreement look bleak as the South's main presidential candidates have demanded that it be renegotiated or scrapped altogether.