Korea will broadly raise historical issues involving Japan, including the fate of aging Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II, at this month's U.N. General Assembly in New York, a senior official said Sunday.

The subject of former wartime sex slaves, euphemistically called "comfort women," is one of the most emotional and unresolved issues between South Korea and Japan, which occupied the Korean Peninsula as its colony from 1910 to 1945.

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, who will lead a Korean delegation, is scheduled to give a keynote speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 28.

The official said the content of Kim's speech has yet to be finalized, but the minister is likely to make a comprehensive mention of historical issues with Japan, including comfort women and the easternmost South Korean islets of Dokdo frequently claimed by Japan.

"The (fate of) comfort women is a universal human rights issue and should be mentioned at the U.N.," said the official. "The issues of Dokdo and comfort women are both related to the East Asian history." The official also said Korea will make a countermove if Japan raises the issue of Dokdo at the U.N. Assembly.

It will not be the first time South Korea has raised the issue at the Assembly, but it will come as Seoul is considering forming an arbitration panel with Tokyo, in what would be the latest diplomatic bid to resolve longstanding grievances regarding the aging victims.

Diplomatic tension between Seoul and Tokyo remains high following the unprecedented Aug. 10 visit by Korean President Lee Myung-bak to the South Korean islets of Dokdo, which Japan also claims as its territory. Lee cited Japan's unrepentant attitude over its brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, including the issue of Japan's wartime sex slavery, as a key reason for the trip to Dokdo.

South Korea has pressed Japan to resolve the issue through an apology and compensation for the aging Korean women on a humanitarian level, but Tokyo refuses to do so, saying the matter was already settled by a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries. (Yonhap)