Seoul, Tokyo hold sex slavery talks

South Korea and Japan held talks on Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II on Monday as the two historical rivals make efforts to improve their strained ties in a landmark year, Seoul's foreign ministry was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.
South Korea and Japan are seeking to improve their icy ties as this year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of their bilateral relations. The year also marks the 70th anniversary of Seoul's liberation from Tokyo's colonial rule in 1945.
Lee Sang-deok, Seoul's chief delegate to the talks, met with his Japanese counterpart, Junichi Ihara, earlier in the day in Seoul in their seventh round of talks to discuss the "comfort women" issue, according to the foreign ministry.
Last April the two countries launched the talks on sex slavery, but no major progress has been made as Japan is reluctant to sincerely apologize for its past wrongdoings.
The meeting comes as the Seoul-Tokyo ties have plunged to their lowest level in recent years mainly due to the sex slavery issue. Historians estimate the number of sex slaves at about 200,000 with only 53 South Korean victims alive today.
Seoul demands that Japan show sincerity by resolving the sex slave issue in a way that is acceptable to the living victims. But Japan has long dismissed Seoul's demands, saying that all grievances related to its colonial rule were settled through a 1965 treaty that normalized their bilateral ties.
In June, Japan irked Seoul and Beijing, victims of Tokyo's wartime aggression, by saying that its 1993 apology over the sex slavery issue, named the Kono Statement, was the outcome of a political compromise between Seoul and Tokyo.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to release a statement in August to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.