Lee urges Tokyo to put apology into action

President Lee Myung-bak called on Tokyo to act up to Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s apology Tuesday for Japan’s colonial rule of Korea.

Kan expressed “deep remorse and a heartfelt apology once again for the great damage and pain caused by Japan’s colonial rule” in a statement endorsed by the Japanese Cabinet, but did not mention the forced treaty that put Korea under Japan’s control a century ago.

President Lee appraised the sincerity of Tokyo’s statement and said it was important how Japan acts up to its words during a phone call made by Kan after issuing the statement, Lee’s spokesperson said.

There was no mention, however, of the claim by intellectuals from both countries that the 1910 Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was invalid from the outset, presidential spokesperson Kim Hee-jeong said. Over 1,000 scholars, writers and lawyers from Korea and Japan have urged Tokyo to declare the forced treaty null and void.

Kan asked Lee to visit Tokyo in the near future before the G20 summit in Seoul or APEC summit in Yokohama. Lee suggested sincere and wise cooperation on pending bilateral issues, according to Kim.

In Tuesday’s statement, Kan vowed to quickly return Korean cultural relics such as the Joseon Dynasty documents on royal protocol which Japan took away after it gained control of the country. The prime minister also pledged to continue humanitarian efforts to return the remains of Koreans who died in Japan during colonial times.

Kan’s apology did not go much beyond that of former prime minister Tomiichi Murayama in 1995, but unlike Murayama’s statement that was addressed to “Asian nations,” Kan‘s apology was made specifically for Korea.