iplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea have been deteriorating for the last several years due to tensions over the newly emerging issue of women forced by the Japanese Imperial government during World War II to work as prostitutes servicing Japanese soldiers, referred to as 'comfort women' because the brothels were known as "comfort stations." Whereas Japan and South Korea have sustained diplomatic linkages for half a century, relations between the two have been troubled by several

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... ugh issues such as territorial disputes, controversy over history textbooks, and apologies for Japan's colonial domination and wartime atrocities. The issue of the comfort women seems to have become a new signal for diplomatic confrontations between the two coun-D