South Korea rebuffs Japan’s protest over ‘Dokdo shrimp’ served to Donald Trump for dinner
Attendance of former ‘comfort woman’ at Tuesday’s banquet also prompted Japan to lodge a protest
The attendance of the 88-year-old South Korean woman, Lee Yong-soo, at Tuesday’s banquet on and the “Dokdo shrimp” menu had prompted Japan to lodge what a Japanese official described as a “protest” to South Korea through diplomatic channels.
“It’s inappropriate (for Japan) to take issue with the menu and invitees for a state banquet as such matters are to be determined after comprehensively considering all sorts of factors,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kyu-duk told reporters.
Noh said South Korea has conveyed its position to Japan through diplomatic channels.
Japanese officials see the invitation of Lee, one of the most vocal critics of the issue, to the event runs counter to the spirit of a 2015 bilateral agreement aimed at “finally and irreversibly” settling the so-called comfort women issue.