Japan Envoy, Recalled Over ‘Comfort Woman’ Statue, Is Returning to Seoul
By MOTOKO RICHAPRIL 3, 2017
TOKYO — Japan said on Monday that its envoy to South Korea would return to Seoul, three months after he was recalled in a dispute
arising from the sensitive issue of Korean women forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Both were recalled in January to protest a statue commemorating the so-called comfort
women, which Korean activists had erected outside the Busan consulate.
But Mr. Kishida said the diplomats would return nevertheless, citing a pressing need "for close communication
with the South Korean government" to help deal with North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile development.
In return, South Korea promised not to press any future claims
and agreed to discuss Japan’s protests with activists who had erected a statue of a comfort woman near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, which is still there.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Ambassador Yasumasa Nagamine would return to his post on Tuesday,
as would Yasuhiro Morimoto, the consul general in Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city.
Japan withdrew its diplomats in January to protest what it saw as a violation of a December
2015 agreement between the two countries, meant to resolve the longstanding dispute.