‘My heart aches’

GBDESK//

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said yesterday that his “heart aches” over South Korea’s colonial-era suffering, as he hailed fresh efforts to mend Tokyo’s long-strained ties with Seoul at a landmark summit. “My heart aches as many people went through a very difficult and sad experience in the harsh environment at that time,” Kishida said, speaking after a summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. The East Asian neighbours, both crucial security allies of the United States, have long been at odds over historic issues linked to Japan’s 1910 to 1945 colonial occupation of Korean peninsula, including sexual slavery. The two countries have been locked in a tit-for-tat economic dispute since 2018, when South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered Japanese firms to compensate the wartime victims of forced labour, enraging Tokyo. But Yoon has sought to bury the historical hatchet, earlier announcing a plan to compensate victims.