President Park Geun-hye met with Toshihiro Nikai, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)'s General Council, at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on February 13. They discussed the importance of bilateral exchanges at the private level.

President Park praised Nikai for visiting Korea this year with a delegation of tourism industry representatives. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral ties between Korea and Japan. The president asked for continued contributions to the development of their relationship via a variety of cultural events and offerings at the private level.

She also said, "Plans for a variety of cultural exchange events are under way. I hope these events will be an opportunity for people from the two countries to share sympathy and to better understand one another."

Accompanied with 1,400 people, including members of the Japanese Travel Association, regional governments and private companies, Nikai said that they will make their best efforts to increase bilateral exchanges at the private level, and hoped that the exchanges be expanded to more diverse areas, including tourism, the arts and sports.



"To mark the 50th anniversary of the resumption of the Korea-Japan diplomatic relationship in a meaningful way, and to pass down a stable future of Korea-Japan relations to the next generation, we are doing our best to solve the 'comfort women' problem, which remains a key pending issue. It will be the first step to improving our bilateral relations," said President Park.

"There are now 53 victims of sexual slavery remaining alive, and their average age is 88. There is not much time left to solve the problem," said the president. "I hope that LDP General Council Chairman Nikai will pay more attention to this issue and make more efforts so that acceptable measures can be taken quickly to recover their honor."

"I believe that it is very natural that we take care of this problem while the victims are alive," said Chairman Nikai. "We will gather our strength to help efforts to solve the problem."

By Jeon Han, Limb Jae-un
Korea.net Staff Writers
hanjeon@korea.kr
Photos: Cheong Wa Dae