South Korea urges Japan to atone for atrocities

SEOUL, Mar 1 (Reuters) Japan must atone for the atrocities committed during World World Two through concrete measures, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said today, adding it was key to better ties between the two countries.

Roh in a speech marking the 1919 uprising in Korea against Japanese colonial rule said the international community had not forgiven Tokyo for its wartime aggression.

''(Japan) may try to cover the sky with its hand, but we were able to confirm once again that the international community does not forgive the atrocities committed by imperial Japan.'' Japan colonised the Korean peninsula from 1910 until its defeat in World War Two in 1945. Former Japanese prime ministers have apologised for the country's colonial past, but Roh has said Tokyo had not done enough to back its words with action.

''We hope that Japan will not try to glorify or justify a mistaken past but instead show sincerity by following conscience and the international community's generally accepted precedent,'' he said.

Roh spoke about harrowing tales of abuse related by three women who were forced into sexual servitude by Japan during the war in a testimony to US Congress last month.

The two South Korean and one Dutch-born Australian women rejected Japan's official apologies as an insult and said Tokyo's efforts to atone for their ordeal were insufficient because they were not accompanied by offers of government compensation.

''Recently at a US lower house hearing on comfort women, there was vivid testimony by elderly women who had to endure hardship and persecution beyond any human imagination,'' Roh said.

Japan in 1993 acknowledged a state role in the wartime brothel program and later issued apologies and set up the Asian Women's Fund. About 285 of the women who accepted payments of about 20,000 dollars from that fund received personal apologies from Japan's prime minister.

Japan's ties with both South Korea and China have been further strained in recent years over its leaders' visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine -- seen as a symbol of its past militarism because World War Two leaders convicted as war criminals are honoured there along with millions of war dead.

Roh said South Korea wanted good political relations with Japan to match growing economic and cultural links.

''Now we have no choice but to work together to contribute to peace and prosperity of Northeast Asia,'' Roh said, adding it was up to Tokyo to remove the irritants to better ties.

REUTERS PB RK0920