Anchor: South Korea and Japan have exchanged heated words at the UN over Japan’s sexual enslavement of women during World War II. South Korea called on Japan to follow recommendations given by the UN over the past two decades on the issue. In response, Japan revealed intentions to deny a 1996 UN report on the country’s wartime sex slavery. 
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: South Korea has stressed that Japan’s wartime sex slavery issue must be addressed as it falls under the category of one of the UN’s key tasks of eradicating sexual violence.
 
South Korea’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Hahn Choong-hee made the call on Wednesday during a discussion at the UN on raising the status of women.
 
Hahn said the latest attempts by Japanese leaders to deny that Japan forced women to serve as sex slaves for its soldiers during World War II are moves that challenge the UN.
 
[Sound bite: Hahn Choong-hee –South Korea’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN (English)]
“Such actions undermining the Kono Statement constitute a direct challenge to the historical truths as well as the consistent recommendations to Japan.”
 
He noted that for the past 20 years, the UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination have urged the Japanese government to take responsibility for its wartime sex slavery and provide compensation to the victims.
 
In response, Japan revealed intentions to deny a 1996 UN report by former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Radhika Coomaraswamy.
 
Japanese Minister to the United Nations Naoto Hisajima underlined that the Asahi Shimbun had recently retracted its 1982 series on Jeju women who had been forced to serve as sex slaves, which had been quoted in the UN report.
 
[Sound bite: Naoto Hisajima – Minister, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations (English)]
"The article of the Asahi Newspaper, which was likely to give strong influence on the Coomaraswamy report, was recently retracted as false.”
 
Meanwhile, the Japanese government urged Coomaraswamy to withdraw some parts of the special 1996 report.
 
In a meeting with the former rapporteur on Tuesday, Tokyo asked her to take out the part quoted from the retracted Asahi article, which ran a testimony by a Japanese author who said he was involved in abducting Korean women to work at Japan's military brothels.
 
However, Coomaraswamy turned down the request, saying what was featured in the Asahi article was only one part of various testimonies that had been quoted in the UN report.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.