Japan fumes over Seoul denial for arbitration

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - Japan Friday blasted South Korea's denial to go for a third-party mediation over wartime compensation issue, local media reported.

A day after Tokyo-set deadline ended on July 18, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono summoned South Korean Ambassador Nam Gwan Pyo to lodge protest over Seoul's “refusal to establish an arbitration panel to resolve the row”, the daily Mainichi reported.

Terming Seoul’s response as “extremely rude”, Kono said: “What the South Korean government is doing now subverts the world order established after World War II.”

On June 19, Tokyo asked Seoul to form a panel consisting of three third-country members to solve the issue of compensation to victims of wartime when Japan ruled over Korean peninsula during 1910-1945.

However, Seoul dropped the request saying the issue should be “resolved through diplomatic talks, rather than a dispute settlement process”.

“By failing to address the issue, South Korea remains in violation of international law,” Mainichi quoted Kono as saying to South Korean ambassador.

As the bilateral relations between two close allies of the U.S. in far east remain at historic low, Japan on July 4 restricted export of three vital electronic equipment.

The move was seen as retaliation by Tokyo against Seoul’s insistence of paying compensation to wartime victims by Japanese firms as ruled by a Korean court last October.

Tokyo has refused to oblige the ruling saying the issue of compensation was closed during 1965 bilateral pact.