Saying that true friendship between their countries depended on it, visiting South Korean lawmaker Yoo Ki Hong on Friday urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to officially recognize and apologize for the wartime sexual enslavement of women and girls in Japanese-occupied Asia.
The international outcry over the sex slavery issue has reached a fever pitch since the U.S. House of Representatives began in January working on a resolution demanding an official apology from Abe.
Speaking on an NHK program on March 11, Abe offered an apology to the former "comfort women" -- as Japan euphemistically called them -- for the hardships they suffered and their lasting scars, although his comments were largely seen as an attempt to dampen the ongoing uproar.