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Japan has replaced a consul general in South Korea after an unusually short stint

Diplomat was said to have criticised Abe’s South Korea policy in private meeting

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A South Korean protester wears a mask of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe kneeling down in a mock apology in front of a statue of a teenage girl symbolising ‘comfort women’ outside the Japanese consulate in Busan. File photo: AFP

Japan’s consul general in Busan, who had been temporarily pulled from South Korea by the government earlier this year over the issue of “comfort women”, was replaced Thursday after serving for about one year, the Foreign Ministry said.

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Yasuhiro Morimoto, who took the current position in June 2016, quit after an unusually short stint, as consuls general usually stay at their posts for two to three years. He is believed to have criticised Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy on South Korea during a private meeting, a government source said.

His successor is Hisashi Michigami, Japan’s consul general in Dubai, according to the ministry.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference that he does not know the reason for the replacement, adding it is “a usual personnel change.”

In January, the Abe administration temporarily recalled Morimoto along with Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Yasumasa Nagamine, in protest at the erection of a statue in Busan symbolising Korean women forced to work in wartime Japanese military brothels. The two stayed in Japan until April.

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The statue was installed by a South Korean civic group last December outside the Japanese consulate in the southern port city.

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