Roh, Koizumi Make Little Progress on Major Conflicts Only Time Will Heal Korea-Japan Rift

Fifteen university students who belong to an organization calling for the “liquidation of the vestiges of Japanese imperialism” were caught by police at around 2:30 p.m. Monday for holding demonstrations in and outside the Japanese Cultural Center in Jongno-gu, Seoul. According to the police, eight of them, disguised as visitors, entered the cultural center, and the rest of them pretended to be passersby and loitered around the building. All of a sudden, they began a rally by shouting phrases like “We oppose Koizumi’s visit to Korea,” and “Japan should apologize for the past.”

About 40 members of the Pan-Citizen Alliance to Defend Dokdo and the Association for the Pacific War Victims burned the Japanese national flag and pictures of Prime Minister Koizumi in front of the Japanese embassy in Jongno-gu at 11 a.m. They asserted that Japan should promptly stop distorting history textbooks, drop claims to the Dokdo islets, suspend visits by the prime minister to the Yasukuni Shrine and apologize for Japan’s past. The Tongil Yeondae and Minjung Yeondae held press conferences in front of Cheong Wa Dae and said that Prime Minister Koizumi, who “does not reflect on history and tries to intensify militarism,” does not deserve the right to set foot in Korea.

Some 220 members of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan held a rally protesting the visit by Prime Minister Koizumi, who they claim “publicly distorts history and praises war criminals.” They said the summit meeting, held when the “painful outcries of the comfort women are still being heard,” carried no significance. Members of the association of former secret agents sent on missions to North Korea also sent two cars to block off Sejong-no and carry out a demonstration, but were opposed by police. Police deployed about 2,500 men to the area in preparation for potential incidents, but nothing major occurred.

(englishnews@chosun.com )