Park warned that the issue would become “a heavy historic burden” on the Japanese government, as well as on future generations in Japan, unless it is addressed.
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Park said she had reiterated her position that any form of inter-Korean talks is possible if the dialogue helps open a way to peace and reunification on the Korean Peninsula.
The interview came days before Yonhap News Agency is set to host the executive board meeting of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies.
Allowing it to keep “dragging on” was unacceptable, Park said Friday, adding it was “high time to make a decision”.
The two Koreas have held two summits in the past, one in 2000 and the second in 2007. No specific date has been set yet South Korea demands Japan acknowledge its responsibility for the sex slaves, while Japan insists the issue was settled under the normalization treaty of 1965.
Top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un also said in his New Year’s speech earlier this year that he can meet with Park if a right atmosphere and environment is formed.
“It will be possible only when the North comes forward for a proactive and honest dialogue”.
Wit also said the current USA policy of “strategic patience” toward North Korea has not worked to resolve the nuclear issue, and any hopes of a North Korea collapse would amount to nothing more than “unrealistic magical thinking”.
North Korea could produce 20 to 100 nuclear warheads by 2020, and its latest KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missiles were built with technology from the Ukraine, according to experts.
South Korean President Park Geun Hye said she is open to a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if relations between the countries improve and progress is made on resolving a nuclear deadlock.
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Park’s comments indicated the need for headway in the long-stalled six-party talks to denuclearize the peninsula and the trust-building between the two Koreas by fulfilling the agreements reached on August 25 after marathon talks between top-level military officials.
