South Korea, Japan to meet over wartime sex slaves

South Korea and Japan will meet again this week over Seoul's demand that Tokyo apologize for its wartime sex slavery, the Korean news agency Yonhap reported Wednesday, quoting the Foreign Ministry.

The eighth round of talks will be held in Tokyo on Thursday, led by Lee Sang-deok, the Foreign Ministry's director-general of the Northeast Asia affairs bureau, and his Japanese counterpart, Junichi Ihara, the ministry said in a press release.

The talks come as both countries have been seeking a breakthrough in their strained ties in a year that marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral ties and 70 years since Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

Historians say more than 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese troops during World War II.

South Korea has demanded Japan apologize for the crime and offer appropriate reparations before all the victims pass away. As of Monday, only 52 survivors remained, according to the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will honor past governments' apologies for Japan's wartime atrocities, but stopped short of making his own apology.

President Park Geun-hye has refused to meet one-on-one with Abe unless the Japanese leader shows commitment to resolving the issue.

On Monday, a group of 225 Japanese scholars urged Abe to offer his own apology, saying in a statement that he "should deliver a message of remorse and apology, reaffirming that (Japan's) invasion and colonial rule of many Asian countries, including Korea, China and other neighboring countries, caused damage and agony for people there."

Last month, hundreds of American historians issued a similar statement critical of Abe over his dubious stance on the historical issue.