S. Korean lawmakers dissatisfied with Kan`s apology over annexation+

TOKYO, Aug. 19 Kyodo -
A group of South Korean lawmakers voiced dissatisfaction Thursday over a
statement issued by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan last week, in which he
apologized specifically to South Korea for Japan's past colonial rule of the
Korean Peninsula.
''We are disappointed, as it was not enough for South Korean people who had
longed for an apology for 100 years,'' former South Korean farm minister Kim
Young Jin told a group of Japanese lawmakers in a meeting held in the Japanese
Diet building, according to the Japanese lawmakers. The statement was issued
ahead of the Aug. 29 centenary of Japan's annexation of the peninsula.
The South Korean lawmakers also said Japan should provide some form of
compensation to South Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for
Japanese soldiers before and during World War II, the Japanese lawmakers said.
The meeting was attended by 14 Japanese Diet members and eight South Korean
lawmakers, both from the ruling and opposition parties.
Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima sought South Korean lawmakers'
understanding, as she was quoted as telling them, ''Though it was not enough,
we'd like to highly value the fact that such a statement was issued.''
Azuma Konno, an upper house member from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan,
said, ''I think (the statement) deserves a little more compliment,'' the
lawmakers said.
The South Korean lawmakers also submitted a written request to the Japanese
government, calling on the nation to provide substantive compensation for
illegal and forcible acts on South Koreans in the past and to eliminate
discrimination against South Korean residents in Japan.
They also urged the Japanese government to grant South Korean residents in
Japan the right to vote in local elections, while requesting support for
war-displaced South Koreans left behind in Sakhalin.
In a free discussion, one South Korean lawmaker said the statement was ''too
abstract.''
''If (Japan) is really candid about the history, it has to admit the 1910
Japan-Korea annexation treaty was illegal and void,'' the lawmaker was quoted
as saying.
Other South Korean parliamentarians also made critical comments such as, Kan's
statement ''fell far short of dispelling distrust'' among South Koreans, and
that many people in South Korea are having doubts about whether Japan is really
reflecting on the matter.
On Aug. 10, Kan issued a statement to offer an apology to South Korea in the
hope of building future-oriented bilateral relations.
The Japanese government has offered an apology for its wartime aggression a
number of times in the past but has consistently refused to pay direct
compensation to individual victims, saying that all war claims were officially
settled by postwar treaties.
With South Korea, Tokyo takes the position that Seoul's right to claim has
disappeared with the conclusion of an agreement in 1965, along with the Treaty
on Basic Relations, which normalized ties between the two countries.
In the agreement forged in accessory to the 1965 treaty, Japan and South Korea
confirmed that in exchange for Tokyo's provision to Seoul of $300 million in
grants and $200 million in loans, problems concerning property, rights,
interests and claims between the two countries were settled ''completely and
finally.''
Kyodo