South Korea on Tuesday dismissed a call for scrapping a deal with Japan over Tokyo's wartime sex slaves, labeling it a "very precious agreement."
There has been unrelenting public criticism here over the agreement reached in December on "finally and irreversibly" resolving the issue of Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women by Japanese troops during World War II.
"The deal is a 'very precious agreement' as it came into being through the two nations' determination to resolve one of their most thorny issues," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck told a regular press briefing. "It is important for this deal to be sincerely implemented."
The deal calls for an indirect apology by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and 1 billion yen (US$8.29 million) in reparations to be funded by Japan. South Korea agreed to end the dispute once and for all if Japan fully implements the deal.
But some of the surviving South Korean victims accused the government of failing to obtain Japan's acknowledgment of legal responsibility and rashly reaching the deal without consulting them.
Japan has recently submitted an official report to the United Nations denying its coercion of Korean and other Asian women into sexual servitude.
Lee Jong-kul, the floor leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, said Tuesday that the Seoul government should be blamed for its poor handling of the so-called "comfort women" issue on the diplomatic front.
"It is critical that Japan should refrain from making remarks or actions that can hurt the deal on sex slaves," Cho said, asked whether Japan's move related to the U.N. constitutes a violation of the agreement. (Yonhap)