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The government says it will make diplomatic efforts to persuade Tokyo and the international community that Japan must accept the legal responsibility for its colonial and wartime abuses but without explicitly pressing for damages.
A government official said Sunday ¡°inhumane and illegal acts systematically perpetrated by the Japanese government or military¡± such as the drafting of ¡°comfort women¡± as sex slaves for its army, Korean forced labor abandoned on Sakhalin Island or Koreans who fell victim to the atomic bombing of Japan ¡°were not resolved in the agreement on claims¡± in 1965. ¡°We will actively raise the issue of the Japanese government¡¯s responsibility starting with the September UN General Assembly."
But Seoul will continue to refrain from directly demanding compensation from Tokyo because it believes that would give the international community the impression Korea was tearing up the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty, which draws a line under claims from the government. Instead, it wants to support damage suits pressed by individual victims.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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