Pope Francis on Monday greeted a group of South Korean women who were forced to work in brothels for the Imperial Japanese military before and during World War II.
At Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, the pope briefly shook hands with each of the seven women, some in wheelchairs, at the start of a mass he led for peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula.
One of them gave the pope a pin badge showing support for the "comfort women," Japan's euphemism for the sex slaves, and he immediately pinned it to his vestments and wore it throughout the mass.
"Let us pray for the emergence of new opportunities for dialogue, encounter and the resolution of differences," the pope said during the Mass, which South Korean President Park Geun-hye attended.
The sympathetic gesture by the globally influential leader is likely to influence international opinion on the contentious issue.
Francis arrived in South Korea on Thursday for a five-day official visit, the first papal visit to the nation in 25 years.
The comfort women issue is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to improving ties between South Korea and Japan.
South Korea has asked that Japan make a full apology and pay compensation to the former sex slaves, while Japan maintains it has repeatedly apologized and that issues of official compensation were settled by the 1965 treaty under which diplomatic ties were established with South Korea.
The Japanese government organized a fund with private donations in 1995 to pay the women "atonement money," but the Seoul says the fund was not official and thus unacceptable. It was dissolved in 2007.
