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SEOUL: South Korea’s incoming leader Lee Myung-Bak said Thursday
that he would seek “mature relations” with Japan and would not
seek an apology for its brutal colonial rule over Korea in the last
century.
“South Korea-Japan relations should develop
toward a future-oriented way, which would benefit both countries and
also contribute to peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia,” said
the president-elect, who takes office on February 25.
“I personally do not have any intention to
seek an apology or any expression of regret from Japan over the
past,” he told a press conference in answer to a question,
signaling a policy shift.
Relations have often been prickly because of
lingering resentment over Japan’s brutal 1910-1945 colonial rule
over the Korean Peninsula. The two neighbors also have a territorial
dispute over islands called Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan.
Lee’s predecessors, including incumbent
President Roh Moo-Hyun, had demanded that Japan apologizes for past
atrocities.
“It is true that Japan has apologized just in
a formal way and thus failed to move South Koreans,” Lee said.
“That’s why the problem has been repeated.
“But I really do not want to tell them to
‘apologize’ and ‘repent,’ for the sake of matured relations
between South Korea and Japan.”
Japan provided South Korea with $800 million in
aid and loans under a 1965 treaty restoring relations.
The Tokyo government has since apologized to
South Koreans for atrocities during colonial rule, which ended with
Japan’s defeat in World War II.
But sporadic comments or actions by Tokyo
politicians have fueled resentment.
Relations turned sour especially during the
2001-2006 tenure of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who paid
annual pilgrimages to a shrine venerating Japanese war dead
including top war criminals.
-- AFP
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