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177228
Fri, 04/22/2011 - 10:42
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S. Korean civic groups launch joint body to deal with Japan's wartime past


SEOUL, April 22 (Yonhap) -- A group of South Korean civic groups launched a standing consultative body on Friday to jointly deal with Japan's attempt to whitewash its colonial past, amid the neighboring country's renewed sovereignty claims over the South Korean islets of Dokdo.
The consultative body, whose English name roughly translates into the "council for the implementation of the joint declaration of South Korean and Japanese citizens," said it comprises some 13 local civic groups that signed a statement jointly issued by Japanese civic groups last year to mark the 100th anniversary of Japan's annexation of Korea.
In the statement, the two sides decided to work together to create detailed action plans to draw Japan's repentance for its atrocities committed against the Korean people.
"We will comply with the statement's principles and the action plans, and exchange information on historical issues. We will also cooperate with other foreign civic groups to deal with pending issues of Japan's wartime past," the group said at a launching ceremony on Friday.
It said it has collected nearly 8.3 million won (US$7,600) for disaster relief in Japan since the massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country's northeastern region last month and handed the donations over to the Japanese civic groups involved in the consultative body.
"This is the first time that Korean and Japanese civic groups have set up a standing consultative body to deal with pending historical issues between Korea and Japan," said Park Han-young, chairman of the preparatory committee for the body.
Hundreds of thousands of young Korean women were forced to serve as sex slaves for front-line Japanese soldiers during World War II, and millions of Koreans were forced to work in Japanese mines and factories, many without payment.
Last August, Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan apologized for the country's brutal colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Critics, however, claim that Kan neither explicitly admitted that Japan's annexation of Korea was illegal nor proposed ways to compensate the victims of sex slavery and forced labor.
Tokyo approved a set of new middle school textbooks late last month, describing South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo as Japanese territory, a move that sparked public resentment against the former colonial ruler in South Korea.
brk@yna.co.kr

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