SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said he intended to stick to existing agreements with Japan tied to its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, including one on the treatment of Korean women forced to work in its military brothels.

The legacy of Japan’s colonisation from 1910 to 1945 is politically sensitive for both countries, with many surviving “comfort women”, a Japanese euphemism for the sex abuse victims, still demanding Tokyo’s formal apology and compensation.

Lee, whose liberal Democratic Party has opposed the deal, made the comments in an interview with Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper published on Thursday ahead of his Tokyo summit this week with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

“For South Korean people, that agreement by the previous administration is very

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