By Yi Whan-woo



Both Korea and Japan are finding it increasingly difficult to seek a diplomatic solution to the dispute over "comfort woman" statues amid negative public sentiment toward each other.



This is partly because politicians and bureaucrats in the countries are taking advantage of the incendiary issue for their own political interests.



Since the dispute was triggered by the placement of a statue outside the Japanese consulate in Busan, Dec. 30, politicians have been taking more hawkish stances on historical issues between the two countries, analysts said.



"I'm concerned about the politicians linking their domestic situations with diplomacy," Cho Yang-hyun, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, said Thursday.



"The diplomatic conflict surrounding historical issues will be inevitable if Korea and Japan continue to be hawkish over the matter. Moreover, such unfavorable circumstances will leave a burden for the next Korean government in its ties with Japan."



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been falling short of taking countermeasures after Tokyo took retaliatory action Jan. 6 over the presence of the statue of a young girl symbolizing comfort women in Busan.



The foreign ministry's bungled efforts came amid a leadership vacuum caused by the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.



Despite this, potential candidates for a possible early presidential election this year have been stepping up criticism of Japan and its agreement with Korea reached in December 2015 over sex slavery during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation of Korea.



Tokyo cited the agreement in its retaliation against Seoul, saying the statue in Busan was in violation of the "final and irrevocable" deal to settle disputes over comfort women.



Opposition presidential hopefuls Moon Jae-in, Lee Jae-myung, Ahn Cheol-soo and Park Won-soon promised to nullify, review, scrap or renegotiate the sex slavery deal.



Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is highly likely to run for the presidency, also said Korea should return the 1 billion yen already sent by Japan if such an offer was made under the condition that any statue in front of Japanese diplomatic missions should be removed.



To further complicate things, Gyeonggi Province Council pledged this week to set up a new comfort woman statue on Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.



If erected, it will join 55 other comfort woman statues that have been installed nationwide by civic activists.



The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea's Rep. Park Kwang-on proposed a bill Thursday asking the government to help maintain the statues.



Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said, "The presidential hopefuls are highlighting the diplomatic issue with Japan to ensure they separate themselves from the unpopular Park Geun-hye government."



He speculated Japan's retaliation against Korea was made as part of efforts to divert public attention following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's failure in two key diplomatic policies.



Abe has still not convinced incoming U.S. President Donald Trump not to scrap the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which Abe said will be "meaningless without the U.S."



Abe also ended his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dec. 15, in a stalemate over disputed islands lying between the two countries.



Shin pointed out that Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida may have also provoked Seoul, Wednesday, by claiming Dokdo was Japanese territory to divert public attention from Abe's diplomatic mishaps.



Kishida's remark was made in response to the Gyeonggi council's pledge to install a comfort woman statue on the islets.



Meanwhile, the foreign ministry here said, Thursday, that it was not appropriate to link issues concerning Dokdo with the comfort women statues.



