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  • Korea and Japan will hold their first working-level talks on the so-called "comfort women" issue

  • in Seoul later today. But as our Hwang Sung-hee tells us,... it

  • will take much more than one meeting to mend decades of sour ties.

  • Senior officials from Korea and Japan will meet in Seoul Wednesday as they seek to resolve

  • the long-standing dispute over Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women.

  • The rare meeting is the result of an agreement reached ahead of President Park Geun-hye's

  • first official talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the Netherlands last month.

  • Korea is expected to reiterate its demand for an official apology and legal compensation

  • from Japan for the so-called "comfort women." Tokyo claims the issue was settled through

  • a 1965 treaty signed by the two neighbors when they normalized diplomatic ties.

  • But a report by Kyodo News Agency Wednesday on a meeting between Japanese and Korean officials

  • in Tokyo in February suggests a shift in Japan's attitude.

  • At the meeting, Japan reportedly said it wants to resolve the comfort women issue before

  • next year, which is the 50th anniversary of the two countries' normalizing their diplomatic

  • ties. The report also said the Japanese government

  • is reviewing various humanitarian measures, including providing government support funds

  • for the victims and an official apology by the Japanese ambassador to Korea.

  • Tokyo is reportedly even mulling the possibility of issuing a letter to the comfort women under

  • the prime minister's name. Around 200-thousand women, mostly Korean,

  • were forced to serve the Japanese army in comfort stations during the early 20th century.

  • But most agree that just one round of talks will not be enough for the two neighbors to

  • overcome seven decades of diplomatic tensions. Hwang Sung-hee, Arirang News.

Korea and Japan will hold their first working-level talks on the so-called "comfort women" issue

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