S. Korea open to wartime labor talks with Japan with provisos

South Korea said Wednesday it is open to bilateral talks with the Japanese government over wartime labor compensation if both Japanese and South Korean firms would be involved in a financing scheme.The dispute over compensation has frayed ties between the two countries following South Korean court decisions ordering Japanese companies to compensate victims of forced labor during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 through the end of World War II in 1945.A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official on the same day rejected the South Korean overtures, not just on the idea o…READ FULL ARTICLE