Japan apologizes to South Korea for colonial rule

Japan apologized on Tuesday to South Korea for its colonial rule over the country, seeking to strengthen ties ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Japanese annexation of the Korean peninsula.

During Japan's 1910-45 occupation, many Koreans were forced to fight as front-line soldiers, work in slave-labour conditions or serve as prostitutes in brothels operated by the military.

The issue of Japanese wartime aggression against its Asian neighbours is still sensitive more than half a century later.

"For the enormous damage and suffering caused by this colonization, I would like to express once again our deep remorse and sincerely apologize," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in a statement approved by the cabinet.

The statement apologized specifically to South Korea, in contrast to earlier apologies by Japan for wartime actions made broadly to the country's Asian neighbours.

Japan has no diplomatic relations with communist North Korea, which had no immediate response to Kan's apology.

Moving forward

Later in the day, during a news conference, Kan said the "political relationship between our two countries is developing in a good direction."

"I want the statement that we have delivered this time to form the basis of improving our relationship and moving forward," he said.

Seoul accepted the apology, although President Lee Myung-bak does not plan an official response, said a presidential spokesman.

"We accept the Japanese prime minister's statement as Prime Minister Kan's and the Japanese government's willingness to overcome the unfortunate past and to develop a bright South Korea-Japan relationship in the future," said South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun.

Some victims of Japan's rule called Tokyo's apology insufficient, saying there should be reparations for victims, prosecution of wrongdoers and a record of the Japanese military's history of sexual slavery in Japan's textbooks.

"We no longer welcome nor believe apologies only in words with no actions," said Yang Soon-im, president of the South Korean Pacific War Victim Federation during an anti-Japan rally in Seoul on Tuesday.

The apology comes ahead of the 100-year anniversary of Tokyo's annexation of the Korean peninsula on Aug. 29.

Kan also said Japan would soon return Korean cultural artifacts to the country, including historical documents, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK, and spoke with South Korea's president after the statement was approved.

Despite their troubled history, Tokyo and Seoul remain closely linked economically and militarily.

Both countries host tens of thousands of U.S. troops, and Japan was quick to stand by South Korea after the latter accused North Korea of sinking one of its warships in March, killing 46 sailors.

Japan's occupation of Korea ended when it surrendered to the U.S. in 1945 at the end of the Second World War.