Japan and South Korea to discuss comfort women issue

Japan and South Korea's foreign ministers are set to discuss the fraught issue of so-called "comfort women", forced to work in Japanese brothels during World War Two. Up to 200,000 women are estimated to have been sexually enslaved by Japan during the war, many of them Korean. It has long strained ties, with South Korea demanding stronger apologies from Japan and compensation for victims. Earlier this year both sides agreed to speed up talks to resolve the row. Japan's Fumio Kishida arrived in Seoul on Monday to meet his counterpart Yun Byung-Se, in what correspondents say is a significant move. Advertisement Analysis - Mariko Oi,Image copyright AFP Image caption South Korean activists for comfort women hold weekly demonstrations outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul "Comfort women" is one of two major historic issues that have strained Japan's relationships with its neighbours - the other is the Nanjing massacre. Few in Japan would disagree that the country's Imperial Army had a prostitution corps during the World War Two. Women were from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and other South East Asian nations. The justification of having such a unit was to prevent soldiers from misbehaving. While South Korea and other countries demanded an apology and compensation, one of the main debates in Japan has been whether they should be called sex slaves and if they were forced to work as prostitutes.