It was inappropriate for Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to demand Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak remove the “Peace Statue” during their summit late last year, said Shin Kak-soo, South Korean ambassador to Japan.

The monument was installed by Korean civic groups in December in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to remind Japan of the Korean women forced into sex slavery during World War II.

“It is true that the Japanese government keeps asking Seoul to remove the statue,” Shin told reporters in Seoul.

“But if the Korean women’s sex slavery issue can be smoothly and quickly resolved, the statue issue will be also resolved.”

The problem of so-called “comfort women” has been a thorny diplomatic issue between Korea and Japan.

Korea is to propose forming an arbitration panel with Japan to resolve the long-standing grievances of sex slavery victims.

“The Korean government will make efforts to draw up solutions that the victims can accept. If this issue is not resolved, it is inevitable to seek arbitration,” Shin said.

The Korean victims of sex slavery are mostly over age 80, and demand an official apology and compensation from Japan.

However, Japan keeps saying that the issue was resolved through the 1965 Korea-Japan agreement.

In late March or early April, Japan is to review high school textbooks in which the Dokdo islets in the East Sea are described as Japanese territory.

Shin said many Japanese officials in the education commission have conservative political views, and are thus likely to authorize such textbooks, he said.

As for North Korean issues, Japan is unlikely to move forward in opening dialogue with North Korea, unless there is progress in resolving the long-standing issue of the past abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea, Shin said.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)