S.Korea issues arrest warrant for Japanese politician for defaming 'comfort women'

SEOUL - A South Korean court issued a warrant Monday to arrest a Japanese politician on charges of defaming South Korean victims of sexual enslavement under the colonial rule of Japan, local media reported.

The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant against Nobuyuki Suzuki, 49, a member of an ultra-right Japanese party, as he has refused to be arraigned at the court since September 2013 when the court asked him to stand trial for defamation charges.

Suzuki was indicted here in June 2012 when he put up a wooden stake with the phrase of "Takeshima is a Japanese territory" beside the bronze statue of a young girl symbolizing the "comfort women."

The bronze figure was set up in 2011 in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to memorize the "comfort women", or a euphemism for Korean women coerced into sex slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the World War II.

The Takeshima, called Dokdo in South Korea, is a group of rocky outcroppings lying halfway between South Korea and Japan, which has been a longtime subject of territorial dispute between the two countries.

The court plans to ask prosecutors to put Suzuki, who is staying in Japan, on a wanted list, while delivering once again the arraignment notice and summons to him.

Suzuki was also accused of putting up a similar wooden stake beside a monument commemorating Yun Bong-gil, a Korean independence fighter during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule, in Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture.

The Japanese politician took photos of the scene and posted them on his blog, calling Yun a "terrorist." Yun was executed in Japan after attempting to assassinate then Japanese rulers.