Foreign Ministry under fire for trying to relocate 'comfort women' statue

By Yi Whan-woo

Criticism is mounting against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following media reports that it asked officials in Busan last week to remove a statue symbolizing Japan’s wartime sex slavery installed just outside the Japanese consulate there.

Foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck confirmed Thursday that the ministry requested cooperation to relocate a statue of a girl symbolizing comfort women in letters it sent on Feb. 14 to Busan Metropolitan Government, Busan Metropolitan Council and Dong-gu Office.

He said the installment of a sculpture near a foreign diplomatic mission is not appropriate considering international customs and practices. He also said the ministry’s logic can be applied to the other controversial comfort woman statue set up outside the Japanese Embassy in central Seoul.

However, municipal officials and civic activists in Busan denounced the move, saying the ministry is repeating Japan’s demands.

They also criticized the ministry for being “pro-Japanese,” arguing it turned pessimistic on the statue amid deteriorated ties between Seoul and Tokyo and growing anti-Japan sentiment.

“We still suffer from trauma after facing criticism across the country when we first attempted to remove the statue,” a Dong-gu Office official said.

The official cited that the district office removed the statue for a couple of days and restored it there in December after civic activists erected it in Dong-gu.

“Asking us to relocate the statue is like killing us twice. It’s not even imaginable for the time being,” the official said.

In a statement jointly released Thursday, more than 30 groups of advocates for the statue in Busan protested the foreign ministry.

“Our foreign ministry is rather a pro-Japanese group that represents Tokyo’s views while ignoring public sentiment,” the statement read.

The activists said they will stage a mass rally on the 98th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement and will ask the central government to withdraw its recommendation to remove the statue.

Ministry spokesman Cho turned down the argument over the foreign ministry’s “pressure” on the district government. He said the letter was sent to “deliver the ministry’s view over the case more clearly.”

The ministry initially said it will leave the case up to the local government and civic activists.

But it turned negative toward the statue after Tokyo recalled its ambassador to Korea, Yasumasa Nagamine, on Jan. 9. The recall was made in retaliation to Seoul’s “failure” to remove the statue in line with an agreement reached between the two countries in December 2015 over Japan’s wartime sex slavery.

Japans also said it claimed the two statues in Busan and Seoul are in breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Its Article 22 states that a host country should protect the premises of diplomatic missions "against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity."

On Jan. 13, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said during his National Assembly appearance that the establishment of the statue in Busan is “not appropriate” in terms of international relations.

During a regular press briefing on Jan. 10, the ministry spokesman said the central and local governments as well as civic activists should consider international conventions regarding the statue.