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S.Korea Has No Plan to Renegotiate Normalization Agreement With Japan: Official

Posted on: Saturday, 27 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

S.Korea has no plan to renegotiate normalization agreement with Japan: official

SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-shik said Friday the Seoul government has no intention to renegotiate the normalization agreement signed with Japan in 1965.

"The (South Korean) government is not considering renegotiating the agreement at the moment, because observance of any agreement is the way for South Korea to maintain and secure trust in the international community," Lee said.

Lee's remarks came after he announced the declassification earlier Friday over tens of thousands of pages of documents concerning the South Korea-Japan Basic Treaty, which laid foundation for the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1965.

Lee's remarks was responding to calls for re-negotiation of the South Korea-Japan Basic Treaty, which critics say did not provide adequate compensation for South Koreans forcibly taken to Japan or front-line areas to serve Japanese soldiers during World War II.

South Korea received 800 million US dollars in grants and loans in return for abandoning its demand for compensation for Japan's colonization of Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

The South Korean vice foreign minister hoped the declassification would help clarify the truth about South Korea's relations with Japan and serve as a guide to the correct evaluation of history.

South Korean people can access the documents starting from next Monday at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, a think tank affiliated with the South Korean Foreign Ministry in southern Seoul.

It is the second time Seoul has disclosed the content of documents concerning the South Korea-Japan Basic Treaty this year.

The South Korean government decided to declassified the documents in a mid of the 60th anniversary of the liberation from the Japanese colonial rule.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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