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Mon, January 18, 2021 | 10:24
Diplomacy
Japan steps up demands for removal of 'Girl Statue'
정부 "일본 '위안부 소녀상' 철거 주장, 본말 전도된 것"
Posted : 2015-11-12 17:04
Updated : 2015-11-12 22:14
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By Yi Whan-woo

A statue of a Korean girl located across the street from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul is emerging as a new bone of contention because Tokyo is demanding its removal, as it symbolizes Japan's wartime sexual slavery.

Korean officials say Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet are demanding that the Korean government remove the statue that was set up by civic activists.

"Whether to remove the statue or not is not up to the Korean government. That cannot be settled in governmental talks," a South Korean official said on condition of anonymity.

The statue commemorates tens of thousands of Korean women who were forced into prostitution at frontline brothels operated by the Japanese Army before and during World War II.

During the 10th round of working-level talks in Seoul, Wednesday, Japanese officials formally asked the government to remove the statue in order to settle the decades-long issue of sexual slavery, according to diplomatic sources.

Tokyo's Ashai Shimbun also reported Tuesday that Abe called for the removal of the statue during his summit with President Park Geun-hye at Cheong Wa Dae on Nov. 2.

The two East Asian neighbors have wrangled over decades to resolve issues related to Japan's state-perpetrated sex crimes, which have been one of the biggest stumbling blocks in improving ties.

The statue was set up by the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (commonly known as the Korean Council), a private Seoul-based group advocating for surviving victims.

"The statue must be embarrassing for the Abe government as it has raised public awareness both in Korea and abroad of Japan's violation of women's human rights," said Lee Myeon-woo, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute.

"But there's no room for the Park administration to accept Japan's unilateral demand because removing the statue would trigger controversy over a possible violation of freedom of expression.

"I'd say the Abe government's claim is comparable to demands made by North Korea's Kim Jong-un regime to stop anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns carried out by civic activists," Lee added.

Erected in December 2011, the controversial statue is of a barefoot teenage girl with roughly cut hair sitting in a chair, with the shadow of an elderly woman etched into the ground beneath her.

Since then, a total of 21 similar statues have been set up in Korea alone, according to an official at the Korean Council.

Korean-American communities have also been carrying out campaigns to set up statues in their respective neighborhoods.

"All those statues, except for the one outside the Japanese embassy and the one at the War and Women's Human Rights Museum in Seoul, were erected by civic activists other than us," the official said on condition of anonymity. "Those activists made the decisions alone. I don't think the government can find out if there are other civic groups that plan to build additional statues in the future."

An activist who heads a shelter in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province for a dwindling number of aging former Korean sex slaves claimed the Abe government must change its unrepentant attitude to resolve the historical conflict.

"A series of statues have been built because Japan has been trying to cover up the truth of its brutal sex crimes while the surviving victims have been passing away," said Ahn Shin-kwon, the chairman of the House of Sharing.

Koreans accounted for a majority of the estimated 200,000 sex slaves, who were euphemistically called "comfort women."

Less than 50 of the former sex slaves, who are in their 80s or older, remain alive in Korea, while Japan has refused to offer an apology or compensation to them.

"To my understanding, Japan is only concerned about its national image being tarnished globally, especially in the United States, its most important ally," Ahn said.

"Its efforts have failed and will never succeed because the world knows in its heart it committed extreme wrongs during WWII."

Ahn said Armenian-Americans in the U.S. protested against Japan's move to hamper Korean-Americans from setting up a statue in a park in Glendale, Calif. in 2013.

This was the first statue overseas to commemorate the comfort women.

"Armenians share common ground with Koreans in terms of historical wounds because they were massacred under Turkish rule during World War I," he said. "They must have understood that the statue can help publicize Japan's brutality and its need for apology."


정부 "일본 '위안부 소녀상' 철거 주장, 본말 전도된 것"

'민간이 설치…日, 결자해지 차원서 해법부터 제시해야'

정부는 12일 일본 측이 전날 일본군 위안부 문제 해결을 위한 제10차 국장급 협의에서 '위안부 소녀상' 철거를 주장한 것과 관련해 '본말이 전도된 것'이라고 비판했다.

조준혁 외교부 대변인은 정례 브리핑에서 '소녀상은 우리 민간차원에서 자발적으로 설치한 것'이라면서 이같이 밝혔다.

조 대변인은 이어 '일본 측이 먼저 (위안부) 피해자 분들이 수용할 수 있고 우리 국민이, 더 나아가 국제사회가 납득할 수 있는 해결방안을 결자해지 차원에서 제시해야 할 것'이라고 강조했다.

전날 국장급 협의에서 일본 측이 주장한 위안부 소녀상 철거 요구에 다시 분명히 선을 그은 것이다.

정부는 국장급 협의에서도 '민간에서 자발적으로 하는 것으로 정부에서 관여할 수 없다'면서 '위안부 문제가 잘 해결됐으면 이런 일이 일어났겠느냐'고 반박한 것으로 전해졌다.

조 대변인은 전날 협의에 대해 '한일 정상회담 성과를 구체화하기 위한 외교적 행보'라면서 '정상회담에서의 양국간 합의에 따라 위안부 문제의 조속한 해결을 위한 심도있고 유익한 협의를 가졌다'고 말했다.

이어 '정상회담 이후 9일 만에 개최된 것 자체만으로도 의의가 있다'면서 '(양국은) 10차례에 걸친 국장급 협의를 통해 접점 모색을 위한 노력을 계속해왔으며, 조금씩 목표를 향해 움직이고 있다'고 덧붙였다. (연합뉴스)
Emailyistory@ktimes.com Article ListMore articles by this reporter









 
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