Pessimism prevails for sex slavery talks

By Yi Whan-woo

Despite an agreement between President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Monday to accelerate talks to resolve the issue of the “comfort women,” it will be hard for Seoul and Tokyo to narrow their differences, analysts said.

It remains to be seen whether the nationalist leader Abe will change his stance and be more cooperative about settling the dispute.

Speaking before the media at Cheong Wa Dae, Park expressed hope that the bilateral summit would serve as a chance to “heal historical wounds of the Koreans and develop Seoul-Tokyo relations in the future.”

Without touching on history-related issues, Abe instead kept his focus on the future, saying “I will try to lay groundwork to open a new era, which Japan and South Korea will be future-oriented.”

This is the first one-one-on meeting between Park and Abe.

It is “noteworthy” because it took place after both Park and Abe conceded from their respective hard-line stance over Japan’s state-perpetrated sex crimes during World War II, according to Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong University.

The professor pointed out that the South Korean President previously insisted that Japan sincerely apologize for the wartime atrocities while the Japanese Prime Minister refused to do so.

He also said that the agreement on Monday is expected to help Seoul’s efforts for “two-track diplomacy” with Japan, which deals with historical and other issues separately.

Saying “the ball is now in Japan’s court,” Park Won-gon speculated that Japan, is not likely to provide financial compensation to the dwindling number of former Korean sex slaves who are still alive.

Studies show that Koreans accounted for a majority of an estimated 200,000 women who were forcibly taken to work at 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.

“It’s possible Abe may accept Seoul’s demand to issue and apology and have Japanese ambassador to Seoul deliver such an apology to each of the surviving victims here,” said Park Won-gon.

“But it’s not likely that Abe will accept Seoul’s call to provide financial compensation to the survivors because such a measure could trigger similar demands from victims from other countries, including China and North Korea.”

Japan has repeatedly claimed its compensations to the former Korean sex slaves were completed when it normalized diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1965.

“Unfortunately, receiving a verbal apology will be best option to keep Seoul-Tokyo relations moving forward,” Park Won-gon said.

Meanwhile, the rival political parties over the agreement between Park and Abe regarding Japan’s sex slavery.

“We highly value the bilateral summit because the two leaders made a meaningful attempt to clear obstacles that lie on the path to mend strained Seoul-Tokyo ties,” ruling Saneuri Party’s spokesman Rep. Shin Yee-jin said.

The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) disagreed.

“It was a total failure because there were no tangible outcomes,” the party’s spokesman Kim Yung-rok said.