Korea, Japan still poles apart over sex slavery

Park Ok-seon, a victim of Japanese wartime sexual slavery, watches a news report on the issue of the war crime in House of Sharing, a shelter for the victims, in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday. Foreign ministers of Korea and Japan will hold talks about the matter today. / Yonhap

By Yi Whan-woo

Korea and Japan remain poles apart over key issues concerning Tokyo’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, dimming the prospects of a landmark agreement to be sought by the foreign ministers of the two nations, Monday.

On Sunday, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se refuted Japan’s claims that it no longer bears legal responsibility for its wartime sex slavery because the issue was already settled under a bilateral treaty signed in1965.

“There is no change in our stance on the sex slavery issue,” Yun told reporters. “There won’t be, either.”

He said that the 1965 agreement excluded issues on crimes against humanity, including the sexual enslavement of women, and that Japan is still liable to make an apology and compensate surviving victims “individually.”

Yun’s comment came one day ahead of his scheduled talks with Fumio Kishida in Seoul at 2 p.m. They will hold a joint press conference after the talks.

In the lead-up to the talks, the Japanese media reported that Seoul agreed to accept Tokyo’s demand that the statue of a Korean girl situated across the street from its embassy in downtown Seoul be removed. However, the Korean foreign ministry dismissed the report and lodged a protest against the Japanese government for releasing “wrong information” to the media.

On Christmas Eve, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a surprise decision to dispatch Kishida to Seoul. Abe’s move is seen as an effort to end longstanding historical conflicts in line with an agreement made at the Korea-Japan summit in November.

Seoul and Tokyo have held 12 rounds of working-level negotiations since April 2014 to narrow down their differences over the sex slavery issue. The latest one was held in Seoul, Sunday.

“We’ve actively made efforts on a working level and Kishida’s visit tomorrow will be crucial in a timely manner,” Yun said.

Japanese media outlets have reported that Abe is considering issuing an apology in a letter and establishing a fund worth more than 100 million yen ($831,600) to support surviving victims.

Seoul insisted on Japan providing compensation to the remaining 50 surviving victims in South Korea, most of whom are in their late 80s.

However, it remains to be seen whether the Abe government will make it clear that it bears legal responsibility regarding the issue of sexual slavery. It is speculated that Tokyo will only apologize on humanitarian grounds.

Japan also wants removal of the statue of a Korean girl situated across the street from its embassy in downtown Seoul.

“The government, surviving victims and civic activists have had the same voice regarding issues related to comfort women,” said Yoon Mi-hyang, head of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, a civic group in Seoul. “Any failure to keep our voice together will cause a rift in our society.”

Yoon referred to an estimated former 200,000 sex slaves, mostly Koreans, were coerced into sexual servitude at frontline brothels operated by the Japanese Army before and during WWII.

Yoon also said the surviving victims are against tearing down or relocating the controversial statue of the diminutive girl, saying it is not government property.

Erected by the city council in December 2011, the 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, it has been a symbol of animosity between Korea and Japan.