By Kim Bo-eun
President Moon Jae-in triggered questions with his remarks on the controversial 2015 sex slave deal in a telephone call with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Thursday. His statement is raising the possibility of a renegotiation of the bilateral deal, reached under the former President Park Geun-hye administration.
As Abe called for Korea to follow through with the agreement, Moon said, “The majority of the people are not accepting the deal.” He added the two countries need to cooperate to resolve the issue.
In December 2015, the two countries agreed to put the long-disputed issue to rest, with Japan providing Korea with 1 billion yen in government funds.
However, Tokyo did not clarify whether the fund was for reparations or humanitarian assistance for the surviving victims. Some victims and civic groups have opposed the deal, claiming the Japanese government did not acknowledge its legal responsibility in forcing Korean women into sex slavery for the Japanese military.
The agreement also came under fire for being signed behind closed doors, and excluding victims’ voices in the process.
In the race for presidency, Moon pledged to either nullify the deal or seek renegotiation. Japan, however, stressed that the agreement was irreversible.
To further complicate matters, the Korean government has already allocated funds to victims, after receiving the fund from Japan last September. Among 38 surviving victims, 34 have received 100 million won.
The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, a civic group representing the victims, is calling for the government to return the fund and annul the deal.
In a radio interview Thursday, the council's president Yoon Mi-hyang said the government should return the 10 billion yen by making up the already allocated amount with government funds.
“The 2015 agreement was a diplomatic disaster of the Park Geun-hye administration, which imposed the removal of comfort woman statues and an irreversible resolution of the issue without providing a proper official apology or reparations,” the group said in a statement.
“The agreement must be annulled, and new negotiations must take place.”
Meanwhile, some say the new administration must take a cautious approach.
“Instead of opting for the extreme of nullifying or carrying out the deal, we must take a look at the content and clarify the disputed elements in the deal,” said Lee Won-deog, director at Kookmin University's Institute of Japanese Studies. These include issues of reparations, comfort woman statues and the “irreversible” nature of the deal.
“Based on the spirit of the deal, the administration should make a realistic request such as Abe making a spoken apology. There would be no need to strain relations with Japan in the beginning of the new administration,” he said.