S. Korean president meets with visiting Japanese PM for Winter Olympics

South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visiting the country to attend the opening ceremony of the 23rd Winter Olympics, the presidential Blue House said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (L) during their meeting in PyeongChang, South Korea, February 9, 2018. [Photo: VCG]

Moon said South Korea made efforts to make the PyeongChang Winter Olympics an opportunity to resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and build a permanent peace on the peninsula.

He also said South Korea and Japan should squarely face the history while pushing for a future-oriented cooperation.

Moon, who took office in May last year, said in late December that the 2015 agreement between the two countries over the "comfort women" victims cannot resolve Japan's sex slavery of the Korean women.

On Dec. 28, 2015, Seoul and Tokyo reached a "final and irreversible" agreement on "comfort women," a euphemism for women who were kidnapped, forced and duped into sexual servitude for Japanese military brothels before and during World War II.

South Korea's task force team investigated the agreement, finding a secret deal between the Abe-led government and the South Korean government under then President Park Geun-hye.

During the meeting with Moon, Abe said in his introductory remarks that he wanted to confirm a close cooperation between Japan, South Korea and the United States to deal with the Korean Peninsula issues.