Words in the News Monday 15 October 2001 Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find explanations of difficult words below.
Japan apologises to Korea Summary: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has offered an apology to the Korean people for the suffering they experienced during Japan's thirty-five year occupation of the country.
Mr Koizumi's visit is aimed at trying to repair damaged ties with South Korea, and it was during a tour of a former prison where Korean independence fighters were held and tortured during Japan's thirty-five year occupation of the country that Mr Koizumi offered an apology to the Korean people.
He expressed his heart-felt remorse for the pain and suffering that Koreans endured under Japanese colonial rule. Mr Koizumi said it was important that the two countries co-operate to make sure that the painful past was never repeated.
But noisy protests have accompanied Mr Koizumi and a planned visit to the National Assembly was cancelled because opposition politicians had threatened demonstrations. Anti-Japanese sentiment is running high, fuelled by recent controversies over Japan's war time past. They include the approval of school history books that Seoul says whitewashes Japanese war time atrocities and Mr Koizumi's recent visit to a shrine honouring Japan's war dead including convicted war criminals.
