Twenty years ago last month, Japan and South Korea vowed to overcome their unfortunate history and to "raise to a higher dimension the close, friendly and cooperative relations" under a new bilateral partnership.
Yet, the Japanese Occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 still clouds ties between the two neighbours, which continue to spar over such issues as comfort women, the use of the Rising Sun military ensign and, now, forced labour.
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