President Park Geun-hye said Monday that South Korea and Japan should unload their "heavy burden of history" toward a future-oriented partnership for reconciliation and co-prosperity.

Seoul and Tokyo are in a stand-off over a divergent interpretation of their shared history, especially the so-called "comfort women" issue.

South Korea has urged Japan to admit its legal responsibility for forcing Korean women into sexual servitude at Japanese military brothels during World War II.

Japan has claimed the matter had been settled in the 1965 treaty to normalize diplomatic relations.

"This year is an historic opportunity for the two countries to move toward a future," Park said at a reception hosted by the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, citing the 50th anniversary of the normalization of their diplomatic relations.

"It's important to create a mood to put down the heavy burden of the past history with the mind of reconciliation and co-prosperity," Park said at the reception that drew some 700 dignitaries, including Japan's top envoy and Park's chief of staff.

Still, a South Korean official later told reporters at the reception that Park was meant to "softly" stress that Japan needs to take steps and she did not mean that the sides should put down the burden of the past history without preconditions. The official did not elaborate on the steps and asked not to be identified.

In Tokyo, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se also read the message from Park at a reception hosted by the South Korean Embassy, which was attended by more than 1,000 dignitaries, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe, for his part, stressed the importance of partnerships between the regional powers.

"Let us join hands and create a new era of bilateral ties by looking ahead to the next 50 years," Abe said at the reception, adding that he would like to make joint efforts with Park to create a new era.

He also said bilateral cooperation is very important to peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region. South Korea and Japan are two key allies of the United States.

Abe's special envoy, Fukushiro Nukaga, also read Abe's message at the reception in Seoul.

Earlier in the day, Yun paid a courtesy call on Abe and delivered Park's verbal message.

She said 2015 can be the starting year for new Seoul-Tokyo relations.

Abe told Yun that it is important to be able to "talk frankly with each other" to resolve problems.

In a meeting with Nukaga, Park expressed hope that Japan will uphold the position held by its previous governments on their history.

Park said Seoul and Tokyo should heal the wounds of the past and create a new momentum for their relations, in an apparent reference to the sex slaves and other historical disputes stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Park urged Abe to uphold the position on the recognition of history by the previous Japanese administrations in his speech set for Aug. 15 to ensure that the sides can move toward reconciliation and cooperation.

That day marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 70th anniversary of Korea's independence from Japan's colonial rule.

Nukaga told Park that Abe has vowed to stand by Japan's two previous statements of apology -- the 1995 Murayama and the 1993 Kono statements that have served as the basis for Japan's relations with South Korea.

In 1993, then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono issued a landmark statement recognizing the military's involvement in establishing and operating "comfort stations."

Two years later, Japan's then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama acknowledged and apologized for the suffering his country inflicted on neighboring nations, including Korea, through its aggressions in the early part of the 20th century.

Nukaga also said that Abe has said his heart aches when he thinks of the painful experiences of the former sex slaves.

Abe's Cabinet angered South Korea last year with its attempt to "review" the Kono Statement, a move that was widely seen by South Korea as an attempt to undermine the apology's credibility.

Later Monday, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun said that any resolution to end the wartime sex slavery issue should be based on the desires of the victims more than anything else.

"If we come up with a firm solution to the issue, there's no reason it will come up again later," Yun told Japanese public broadcaster NHK in an interview. "It's important to restore the dignity of some 50 surviving victims and by doing so the two countries may open another chapter in their relations." (Yonhap)