South Korean President Park Geun Hye on Friday urged Japan to squarely face up to past historical issues, alluding to its brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
"We can open up a future of common prosperity with Japan only when Japan honestly reflects on its past," Park said in a speech marking the 94th anniversary of an independence movement against Japan's 1910-1945 rule of the peninsula.
"The dynamic of (Japan) being the aggressor and (Korea) being the victim will never change, even after the passage of a thousand years," Park, who was sworn into office Monday as the country's first female president, told a ceremony in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province.