South Korean President Moon Jae-in ready to talk with Japan

SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that his government is ready to talk with Japan amid the prolongation of the frayed ties between Seoul and Tokyo over historical and trade issues.

"Our government is ready to sit down and have talks with the Japanese government at any time," Moon said in his nationally televised speech to mark the 102nd anniversary of the independence movement on March 1, 1919 that took place during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonisation of the Korean Peninsula.

"I am confident that if we put our heads together in the spirit of trying to understand each other's perspectives, we will be able to wisely resolve issues of the past," Xinhua news agency quoted the President as saying.

Seoul-Tokyo relations have been frosty for the past decade over trade dispute and historical issues, such as Japan's sex slavery of Korean women for military brothels and the forceful recruitment of Koreans into hard labour without pay before and during World War II.

A South Korean court ordered the Japanese government earlier this year to pay damages to the South Korean sex enslavement victims, but Japan lodged a protest over the court ruling citing the sovereign immunity that allows a state to be immune from civil suit in foreign courts.

The Seoul court ruled that the immunity cannot be applied to the case as the wartime atrocities are crimes against humanity committed deliberately, systematically and widely by Japan. (IANS)

Also Read: NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover complete 7 hour-long spacewalk

Also Watch: COVID 19 vaccination drive, the Third phase starts in Guwahati