TOKYO -- Two decades after issuing a joint declaration pushing for the creation of a "future-oriented" relationship, Japan and South Korea are still struggling to put their history behind them as long-running disputes over wartime "comfort women" and other topics flare up again.
"Japan and South Korea are neighbors, and we have many difficult issues because of that," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday at an event in Tokyo to commemorate the countries' 1998 Joint Declaration. "Political leaders need to make big decisions in order to overcome these issues."
