South Korea said on Monday that security situation on the Korean peninsula continued to remain "grave" following the recent launch of short-range projectiles and "defiant pursuit" of nuclear weapons by its communist neighbor.
"We continue to face a grave situation due to a series of provocations and nuclear threats by North Korea," Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told an annual conference of heads of overseas diplomatic missions in Seoul.
His remarks come after the North test-fired four short-range projectiles into the East Sea over the weekend. Tests of short-range missiles or projectiles by North Korea are not uncommon, but the North's latest tests dashed hopes of easing months of high tensions, triggered by Pyongyang's nuclear test in February, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
Yun also drew the attention of senior diplomats to the controversial remarks made by Japanese leaders recently and urged them to remain vigilant. "Retrogressive remarks and acts by some Northeast Asian leaders keep us on alert," Yun said in a veiled attack of Japanese leaders.
Japanese leaders have received brickbats for attempts to excuse the country's wartime atrocities before and during World War II. In the latest case, Opposition politician and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto had been under fire for his remarks justifying sexual enslavement of Asian women during World War II.
South Korea and China as well as Japanese women lawmakers have condemned Hashimoto's remarks. Seoul denounced the remarks as "preposterous ones that insult the dignity of women, distort history and defend crimes against humanity."
Historians say that tens of thousands of Asian women, mostly Koreans, were forced to work in military brothels during the war when the Korean peninsula was a Japanese colony.
Japan continues to refuse an apology for the wrongdoing or compensate the victims individually, holding that the issue was settled by a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.
Urging Japanese leaders to have a correct view of history to mend ties with South Korea, Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said "a wrongdoer must know what he has done wrong. It is important to make a firm resolution not to repeat wrongdoing and behave accordingly."
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