SEOUL, Mar 1 — South Korean President Park Geun Hye said Japan should “honestly” address its wartime sex slavery to build a more mature partnership with Korea. today in marking the anniversary of a 1919 uprising against Japan’s colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

Park has repeatedly called on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to do more to atone for his nation’s wartime wrongs, and particularly to address the issue of so-called comfort women, the name given to those forced into Japanese military brothels during World War II. Last month, Park said she was open to a summit with Abe if it could produce “meaningful” progress in relations between the two neighbours.

Park Sunday also proposed regular family reunions across the border with North Korea, saying the North should not turn away from the tragedy of separated families as almost 4,000 elderly people die each year in South Korea alone.

South Korea is also willing to resume a railway link between the two nations and will begin the process by restoring and connecting lines in the South, Park said. — Bloomberg