By Yi Whan-woo
Korea and Japan should try to reach a consensus over whether Tokyo should address its legal responsibility in making compensation for its wartime sex slavery or deal with it on humanitarian grounds, analysts said Friday.
They said a consensus will be the only way to resolving the decades-long dispute between the two neighbors over Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women before and during World War II.
"Japan may apologize over its state-perpetrated sex crimes, but it's uncertain whether it will acknowledge that it is legally accountable for the physical and emotional wounds of the former sex slaves," said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong University.
Park pointed out that Seoul repeatedly demanded Tokyo offer sincere apologies for its state-perpetrated sex crimes during its 1910-45 colonial rule and also address its legal liabilities for surviving victims in Korea.
Koreans accounted for a majority of an estimated 200,000 women who were forced to serve at frontline brothels operated by the Japanese Army across the Pacific region. There are fewer than 50 surviving victims in South Korea and they are mostly in their late 80s.
Japan instead has claimed that even if there were legal responsibilities for it to bear, all colonial-era issues between Seoul and Tokyo were completely resolved under a bilateral treaty in 1965. In line with the treaty that normalized bilateral relations, Japan provided Korea with $300 million in free grants and $200 million in soft loans. Tokyo said such expenses were to settle all issues concerning its colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
"Narrowing down such differences over the purpose of compensation will be critical to speed up negotiations on sex slavery under the agreement made at the Seoul-Tokyo summit, Monday," Park said.
Lee Myeon-woo, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, said Korea will have "a tough job" if the government decides to deal with the sex slavery-related issues on humanitarian grounds.
Lee pointed out that the Asian Women's Fund failed to resolve the historical dispute.
The fund was set up in July 1995 by sympathetic Japanese in line with then-Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono's landmark apology over sex slavery.
The surviving victims and civic activists in Korea rejected the fund, claiming it was aimed at making compensation to the former sex slaves for humanitarian reasons rather than legal ones. The fund was dissolved in March 2007.
"Korean society has remained unchanged in its stance since then when it comes to Japan's compensations over sex slavery," Lee said.
He also cited that Seoul and politicians refused to accept a draft proposal made by former Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae in 2012 to resolve Tokyo's WWII sex crimes.
The so-called "Sasae Proposal" suggested that then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda would make a formal apology. It also suggested that then-Japanese Ambassador to Korea Muto Masatoshi would visit the victims to deliver the apology on behalf of the prime minister and offer compensation on humanitarian grounds.
Korea and Japan should try to reach a consensus over whether Tokyo should address its legal responsibility in making compensation for its wartime sex slavery or deal with it on humanitarian grounds, analysts said Friday.
They said a consensus will be the only way to resolving the decades-long dispute between the two neighbors over Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women before and during World War II.
"Japan may apologize over its state-perpetrated sex crimes, but it's uncertain whether it will acknowledge that it is legally accountable for the physical and emotional wounds of the former sex slaves," said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong University.
Park pointed out that Seoul repeatedly demanded Tokyo offer sincere apologies for its state-perpetrated sex crimes during its 1910-45 colonial rule and also address its legal liabilities for surviving victims in Korea.
Koreans accounted for a majority of an estimated 200,000 women who were forced to serve at frontline brothels operated by the Japanese Army across the Pacific region. There are fewer than 50 surviving victims in South Korea and they are mostly in their late 80s.
Japan instead has claimed that even if there were legal responsibilities for it to bear, all colonial-era issues between Seoul and Tokyo were completely resolved under a bilateral treaty in 1965. In line with the treaty that normalized bilateral relations, Japan provided Korea with $300 million in free grants and $200 million in soft loans. Tokyo said such expenses were to settle all issues concerning its colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
"Narrowing down such differences over the purpose of compensation will be critical to speed up negotiations on sex slavery under the agreement made at the Seoul-Tokyo summit, Monday," Park said.
Lee Myeon-woo, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, said Korea will have "a tough job" if the government decides to deal with the sex slavery-related issues on humanitarian grounds.
Lee pointed out that the Asian Women's Fund failed to resolve the historical dispute.
The fund was set up in July 1995 by sympathetic Japanese in line with then-Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono's landmark apology over sex slavery.
The surviving victims and civic activists in Korea rejected the fund, claiming it was aimed at making compensation to the former sex slaves for humanitarian reasons rather than legal ones. The fund was dissolved in March 2007.
"Korean society has remained unchanged in its stance since then when it comes to Japan's compensations over sex slavery," Lee said.
He also cited that Seoul and politicians refused to accept a draft proposal made by former Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae in 2012 to resolve Tokyo's WWII sex crimes.
The so-called "Sasae Proposal" suggested that then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda would make a formal apology. It also suggested that then-Japanese Ambassador to Korea Muto Masatoshi would visit the victims to deliver the apology on behalf of the prime minister and offer compensation on humanitarian grounds.
