China has called on Japan to deal with historical issues in an honest and responsible manner following quarrel between Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) over a "comfort woman" statue.
Japanese sources reportedly said the ROK was expected to remove the "comfort woman" statue from in front of Japan's Embassy in Seoul and had agreed not to join with China in nominating comfort women material to the Memory of the World Register.
The ROK foreign ministry said that there should be no more utterances from Japan that can spark misunderstanding and the government does not have any authority to order the relocation of a statue set up by civic groups.
"Any attempt to play down or deny history will only inflame people's skepticism of Japan's real attitude on historical issues," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
Last month, Japan offered an apology and 1 billion yen (around 8.3 million U.S. dollars) to set up a fund for surviving ROK women who were sex slaves in Japan's wartime military brothels.
The comfort women's treatment was a crime against humanity, Hua said.
