South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha speaks before a briefing of a special task force for investigating the 2015 South Korea-Japan agreement over South Korea's

A 2015 deal with Japan over South Korean "comfort women" forced to work in Japan's wartime military brothels failed to meet the victims' needs, South Korea said on Wednesday, throwing ties into doubt as both countries seek to rein in North Korea.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha apologized for the controversial deal as a panel appointed by her in July to investigate the negotiations leading up to the agreement unveiled its results.

"I apologize for giving wounds of the heart to the victims, their families, civil society that support them and all other people because the agreement failed to sufficiently reflect a victim-oriented approach, which is the universal standard in resolving human rights issues," Kang told a news conference.

Under the deal, endorsed by South Korean President Moon Jae-in's predecessor and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan apologized to former comfort women and provided 1 billion yen ($8.8 million) to a fund to help them.

The two governments agreed the issue would be "irreversibly resolved" if both fulfilled their obligations.

But Moon has said the South Korean people did not accept the deal.

The investigation concluded that the dispute over the comfort women, a Japanese euphemism for the girls and women, many of them Korean, forced to work in wartime brothels, could not be "fundamentally resolved" because the victims' demand for Japan's legal compensation had not been met.

Tokyo says the matter of compensation for the women was settled under a 1965 treaty with Seoul.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the agreement that the issue had been resolved “finally and irreversibly” had been confirmed by both governments.

"It is extremely important that this agreement be steadily implemented," Suga told a regular news conference before the report had been released.

"The government will continue tenaciously to urge the South Korean side at every opportunity to steadily implement this agreement."

South Korea and Japan are key to international efforts to rein in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs that it pursues in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The comfort women issue has been a regular cause for contention between Japan and neighbors China and North and South Korea since the war.

Japan colonized the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945 and occupied parts of China before and during World War Two.

The South Korean government will review the result of the investigation and translate it into policy after consulting victims and civic groups that support them, Kang added.</s>South Korean President Moon Jae-In (R) and U.S. President Donald Trump (L) walk towards a guard of honour during a welcoming ceremony at the presidential Blue House on November 7, 2017 in Seoul, South Korea. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
• South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday a three-way summit with North Korea and the United States is possible.
• Moon said talks should aim for an end to the nuclear threat on the Korean peninsula.
• President Donald Trump has said he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by the end of May.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday a three-way summit with North Korea and the United States is possible and that talks should aim for an end to the nuclear threat on the Korean peninsula.

Moon is planning a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month after a flurry of diplomatic activity in Asia, Europe and the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has also said he would meet Kim by the end of May.

"A North Korea-U.S. summit would be a historic event in itself following an inter-Korean summit," Moon said at the presidential Blue House in Seoul after a preparatory meeting for the inter-Korean summit.

"Depending on the location, it could be even more dramatic. And depending on progress, it may lead to a three-way summit between the South, North and the United States," he said.

Seoul officials are considering the border truce village of Panmunjom, where Moon and Kim are set for a one-day meeting, as the venue for talks between not only Kim and Moon but also a possible three-way meeting.

A Blue House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Moon did not specifically refer to Panmunjom or that a three-way summit had been discussed with Washington before the president spoke.

The rush of recent diplomatic contacts began in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month and helped ease tensions on the Korean peninsula caused by North Korea's pursuit of its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of United Nations Security Council sanctions.

South Korea wants to hold high-level talks with North Korea on March 29 to discuss a date and agenda for the inter-Korean summit and make a formal request to the North on Thursday, Moon's presidential office said.

North and South Korean officials should be able to agree on when the summit between Moon and Kim will take place once the officials from both sides meet this month, the Blue House official said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un greets a member of the special delegation of South Korea's President at a dinner in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 6, 2018. KCNA

Moon said the series of summits should aim for a "complete end" to the nuclear and peace issues on the Korean peninsula.

He said he has a "clear goal and vision", which is for the establishment of a lasting peace to replace the ceasefire signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean war. It also includes the normalization of North Korea-U.S. relations, the development of inter-Korean ties, and economic cooperation involving Pyongyang and Washington, he said.

However, the United States must also add its guarantee in order for peace to come about, Moon said.

"Whether the two Koreas live together or separately, we have to make it in a way that they prosper together and in peace, without interfering or causing damage to each other," Moon said.

The Blue House official said this could mean stopping propaganda broadcasts at the border that are commonly blasted from both sides over loudspeakers. The official could not say whether "interference" also referred to criticism over widely recognized human rights violations in North Korea.

South Korea and the United States will resume joint military drills next month, although the exercises are expected to overlap with the summit between the two Koreas.

Seoul and Washington delayed the annual drills until after the Winter Olympics, helping to foster conditions for a restart of such talks.

North Korea regularly denounces the drills as preparation for war but a South Korean special envoy has said Kim understood that the allies must continue their "routine" exercises. That exchange has not been confirmed.

The North's official KCNA news agency said on Wednesday a "dramatic atmosphere for reconciliation" had been created in cross-border ties and there had also been a sign of change in North Korea-U.S. relations.

That was "thanks to the proactive measure and peace-loving proposal" made by Pyongyang, not Trump's campaign to put maximum pressure on the country, KCNA said in a commentary.

The Blue House official also said earlier on Wednesday South Korea was in discussions with China and Japan for a three-way summit in Tokyo in early May. The three countries have not held such a meeting since November 2015, with relations soured by historical and territorial tensions.</s>South Korean President Moon Jae-in delivers a speech during a ceremony celebrating the 99th anniversary of the March First Independence Movement against Japanese colonial rule, at Seodaemun Prison History Hall in Seoul, South Korea, March 1, 2018. Photo by Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife will pay a three-day official visit to Vietnam starting next Thursday, according to Vietnam's foreign ministry.

During the visit, Moon will attend a summit with his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang, and meet other government leaders, including General Secretary of the Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong.

This will be Moon's first official visit to Vietnam since he took office last May, and his second visit to Vietnam after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Da Nang last November.

The South Korean president's economic delegation will include top executives of Samsung Electronics, the Hyundai Motor Group, SK Innovation and LG Chem, Yonhap reported.

Vietnam is currently South Korea's third largest trade partner and South Korea is Vietnam's second largest trade partner, with bilateral trade volume reaching nearly $61.6 billion last year, according to Vietnam Customs. South Korea is also Vietnam's biggest foreign investor, with its firms investing more than $50 billion in Vietnam between 1988 and 2016.

Moon's visit to Vietnam will be his second official visit to an ASEAN country as part of his "New Southern Policy," which aims to elevate South Korea's relations with ASEAN to the same level as its relations with the U.S., Japan, China and the E.U.

"Vietnam is our largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, and a core partner country for our New Southern Policy," Reuters quoted Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom as saying.

During the Vietnam visit, Moon is also expected to seek ASEAN support and cooperation ahead of the historic inter-Korean summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un next month. Stressing the importance of ASEAN in de-escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula, Moon has promised to visit all 10 of its member states before the end of his term in 2022.</s>Chinese premier Li Keqiang waves as he arrives for a news conference following the closing of the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 20, 2018. Li will be holding a trilateral summit with Japanese and South Korean leaders in early May. Photo: Bloomberg</s>"National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster of the United States, National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong of the Republic of Korea, and Secretary General of the National Security Secretariat Shotaro Yachi of Japan held a trilateral meeting on March 17 and 18 in San Francisco to discuss the permanent denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the planned inter-Korean summit and United States-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea summit," the release said.

On March 5-6, a high-ranking South Korean delegation visited North Korea for talks with Kim Jong-un. South Korean diplomats later delivered a message from Kim Jong-un to Donald Trump, in which the former expressed his willingness to hold direct talks. Trump accepted the invitation to meet with Kim by the end of May.</s>Seoul says North and South Korea will hold talks in late April and establish a "hotline" between leaders to reduce military tensions.</s>South Korea on Sunday rejected China’s criticism over the planned deployment in the South of a US anti-missile system, saying Beijing’s failure to curb its ally North Korea had created the situation. Seoul’s decision to deploy the powerful US system, to counter a growing threat from North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, threatens to damage relations with its largest trading partner Beijing.

China has condemned the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system as a move against its own national security interests and said it would further heighten regional tension. The People’s Daily even warned Seoul on Thursday of the potentially costly “domino effect”, saying the South would “inevitably be the first target” in any conflict between China and the US. The South’s presidential office however urged China to work harder to tame its neighbour North Korea, saying THAAD would have been unnecessary had there been no threat from it.

“Chinese media recently put the cart before the horse in insisting that our decision to host the THAAD was the cause of the North’s series of provocations including ballistic missile launches,” the presidential Blue House said in a statement.

Tension has been running high since the North staged its fourth nuclear test in January and a series of missile launches since then — most recently last Wednesday.

“We believe that China, before taking issue with our purely defensive move, should raise the issue more strongly with the North, which… is disrupting the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia,” it said. China is the sole major ally of the impoverished and isolated North, which relies heavily on food and oil imports from its neighbour.

The Blue House also urged a group of six Seoul lawmakers from the main left-leaning opposition party to scrap a plan to visit Beijing, after they had announced the August 8-10 trip aimed at discussing ways of mending ties.

“No matter what the intention of these lawmakers is, their trip would eventually help strengthen the Chinese government’s stance and deepen division within South Koreans,” it said.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>SEOUL, March 21 (UPI) -- There could be a three-way summit between the two Koreas and the United States, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday.

In a committee meeting held to prepare for the inter-Korean summit in April, Moon said the upcoming cross-border talks followed by a summit between the North and the United States is a historical event in itself.

"Depending on their outcomes, they may lead to a three-way summit of the South, North and the United States," he said, according to Yonhap.

The South Korean leader stressed the pivotal role of the scheduled summits in efforts to denuclearize North Korea, saying it cannot only be realized between the two Koreas.

"This would require the normalization of U.S.-North relations or even economic cooperation between them," he said.

Moon and North Korean Kim Jong Un are scheduled to hold talks in the truce village of Panmunjom late next month, while U.S. President Donald Trump is set to meet Kim by the end of May.

With preparations underway, Seoul officials hope to hold high-level discussions with Pyongyang next Thursday to make arrangements for the cross-border talks, Maeil Business Daily reported.

The South will soon propose the meeting to the North through the Unification Ministry, Presidential Spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said Wednesday.</s>SEOUL: Top US, South Korean and Japanese officials have discussed how to achieve a complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula ahead of upcoming inter-Korean and US-North Korean summit talks. Seoul has said previously that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to hold summit talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April. Seoul says Kim proposed meeting with President Donald Trump , and Trump agreed to him by the end of May.The developments have raised hopes for a potential breakthrough in the North Korean nuclear crisis.US National Security Adviser HR McMaster met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in San Francisco for talks over the weekend on denuclearization and the summit talks.South Korea's presidential office says the three agreed to maintain close trilateral cooperation.</s>U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres greets Kang Kyung-wha, South Korea's Foreign Minister, at the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, February 26, 2018. Photo by Reuters

Japan formally complained on Monday after South Korea's foreign minister raised the issue of wartime "comfort women" at the top U.N. rights body, while warning that it should not be allowed to harm bilateral relations at a critical time in east Asia.

"Comfort women" was Japan's euphemism for Asian women - many of them Korean - forced to work in its wartime brothels. Under a 2015 deal, Japan apologised to the women and provided a 1 billion yen (now $9.4 million) fund to help them, but South Korea has recently sought to revisit the issue.

The two U.S. allies, who share a bitter history including Japanese colonisation, are key to international efforts to rein in North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

Kang Kyung-wha, foreign minister of South Korea, did not name Japan directly in her speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council, but called for a "victim-centered approach" to the issue of comfort women.

Kang said that the victims, now women in their 80s and 90s, were "still striving to restore their dignity and honour".

"My government has humbly acknowledged that previous efforts to resolve the issue had clearly lacked a victim-centered approach...my government will take steps to help heal their scars and restore their dignity and honour," Kang said.

Junichi Ihara, Japan's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, asked about the call for a victim-centred approach, told reporters: "That is her assessment of their approach."

"Japan is of the view that Minister Kang Kyung-wha's bringing up the issue in her statement this morning is totally unacceptable and I myself conveyed our position to (South Korea's) permanent representative here," he added.

A 2015 bilateral agreement had confirmed that the issue was resolved "finally and irreversibly", even if a government changes - as it had with the election of South Korean President Moon Jae-in last year - Ihara said.

Some 70 percent of the 47 former South Korean comfort women still alive at the time of the pact had received support from the fund, he said. "Atonement money" had also been provided to former comfort women in the Philippines and Taiwan.

"In view of the importance of our bilateral relations for peace, prosperity and stability in east Asia and beyond, the two countries also have a responsibility to the international community to steadily implement the agreement," Ihara said.

Kang, in her speech, said that North Korea must heed the call by major powers to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and allow peace to take root on the divided peninsula.
Japan, China, and South Korea agree in principle to hold a trilateral summit in May.