Japan-funded wartime sex slavery victim's foundation dissolved
Seen is the office of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation in Seoul in this Jan. 29 file photo. Korea Times file
By Park Ji-won
The Reconciliation and Healing Foundation, which was founded using Japanese funding to settle disputes regarding wartime sex slavery issues, has finished its dissolution procedure and started a liquidation process, amid worsening relations between Seoul and Tokyo. The Japanese government immediately objected to the decision, strongly urging the South to implement its agreement which the two countries signed to found the organization to support surviving victims in South Korea.
According to officials of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on Friday, the foundation has started the liquidation process under legal procedures after finishing its dissolution procedure. It is not technically the end of the foundation's operation, but the organization will now only can carry out work on liquidation by law, the ministry added.
An official of the ministry said the registration for dissolution was filed on June 17 and notification of completion of the dissolution was delivered Wednesday.
Still, the exact status of the remaining fund was unrevealed, but the official said 5.9 billion won ($5 million) was left as of May after giving it to victims who wished to receive the money. The remaining fund will likely be used during the upcoming liquidation process including providing funding to victims who have requested but not yet received money, as well as for termination of employment of those who worked for the foundation.
The move came amid escalating tensions between South Korea and Japan over the South Korean Supreme Court's ruling in October holding Japanese companies responsible for Koreans forcefully sent to work in Japanese mines and factories during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation. The Japanese government has been objecting to the decision claiming it is against the 1965 bilateral agreement which built the two countries' diplomatic relations.
The South Korean government announced the foundation's dissolution in December citing complaints in its operation. The dissolution process has been underway since then.
The victim's organization was established on July 28, 2016, based on an agreement between then South Korea's Foreign Minister Yoon Byung-se under the 2013-17 Park Geun-hye administration and Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Dec. 28, 2015. The foundation was funded with 1 billion yen provided by Japan.
Many of the surviving victims and citizens, however, have rejected the agreement, saying it was made without reflecting their opinions.
Regarding the dissolution, Japan said it will continue to object to the move as it is against the two countries' 2015 agreement.
Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters Friday, “Japan can absolutely not accept this.”
“In fact, President Moon Jae-in made it clear during a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the foundation will not be dissolved.”
He added that Japanese government officials separately repeated their requests to South Korean government officials through diplomatic channels to implement the agreement. The foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau chief Kenji Kanasugi made an objection to a South Korean political minister at the South Korean embassy in China, and Katsuro Kitagawa, a minister for political affairs at the Japanese embassy in Seoul did so to a South Korean deputy director general of the foreign ministry.
His remarks came after the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun reported Friday that that the foundation was informed Wednesday about the completion of its dissolution by the South Korean government.