Seoul set to review sex slavery deal with Tokyo

By Kim Hyo-jin

The Moon Jae-in government may set up a taskforce to look into the deal with Japan over its sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, according to a senior government official, Friday.

This would be in line with President Moon’s plan to review the controversial agreement reached between the previous Park Geun-hye government and the Japanese government in late 2015.

Moon has told Japanese officials many Koreans “do not accept” the deal, although he has not mentioned renegotiation.

“The government is considering setting up a taskforce in the foreign ministry soon regarding the sex slavery deal,” the official said. “The taskforce will look into the agreement in a comprehensive manner.”

The two governments agreed to end the dispute “finally and irreversibly” under the deal, under which Tokyo offered 1 billion yen in compensation.

But the remaining sexual slavery victims, along with their supporters and many citizens, say that under the agreement, Japan does not recognize its legal responsibility for running military brothels.

They denounced the Seoul government for putting the issue to rest permanently without seeking their opinions.

The official said the envisioned taskforce would look into whether the Park government followed due procedure. This should have included getting the victims’ opinions before signing the deal.

Opponents of the deal say the negotiations, which had repeatedly faced stalemate due to differences of opinion, were rushed.

The taskforce will review diplomatic documents on the Korea-Japan director-level negotiations held between April 2014 and December 2015 and testimony from relevant government officials.

Another focus is how the agreement came to be “final and reversible” and why it referred to the possible removal of the statue of a girl symbolizing sex slaves, established in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.

The countries have been poles apart in interpreting the phrase that says the Korean government would try to deal with the statue issue.

After the taskforce review, Moon may decide whether to revoke or respect the agreement.

The Moon government has yet to take an official position on the deal, although the President has expressed his skepticism on the deal since taking office, repeatedly mentioning many South Koreans did not accept it.

He said this to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during their first phone conversation after Moon’s election victory.

Moon said in a recent Reuters interview, “Japan does not make full efforts to resolve issues of history between our two countries, including the comfort women issue.”

The foreign ministry also said earlier, “South Korea and Japan should make efforts to settle the deal in recognition of the reality that the majority of South Korean people and the victims don’t approve of the deal.”