By Yi Whan-woo
After President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to speed up talks to resolve the issue of “comfort women” Monday, questions are being raised about how the two neighbors should narrow their differences.
Some analysts suggested that officials from the two countries can find solutions from a draft proposal made by former Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae in 2012 to address Tokyo’s wartime sex slavery.
“The Sasae Proposal can provide guidelines for the upcoming talks on sex slavery,” said Lee Myeon-woo, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute.
“It remains to be seen whether the proposal can win endorsement from political circles and the public. But the proposal could be the best way to end this historical conflict.”
Sasae introduced his three-point proposal when he visited Seoul in March 2012 as Japan’s vice foreign minister.
The proposal suggested an apology from then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to then-President Lee Myug-bak for Tokyo’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.
It also suggested the Japanese government to use its budget to give financial aid to the surviving victims.
It proposed then-Japanese Ambassador to Korea Muto Masatoshi meet each of the survivors and deliver Noda’s apology.
However, negotiations between the Lee administration and the Noda Cabinet failed.
Korea claimed that Japan’s financial aid to the former Korean sex slaves who are still alive would be given to officially indemnify their physical and emotional wounds.
Japan instead said such aid should be made for humanitarian reasons.
“It would be idealistic to bring all three points of the ‘Sasae Proposal’ to the table again,” Lee Myeon-woo said.
“Under such circumstances, it would be fair game for Korea to accept Japan’s offer that financial aid to the survivors would be for humanitarian purposes. Otherwise, Park and Abe, both of them conservatives, may not strike a deal during their terms.”
Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handon University, echoed a similar view.
“I remain doubtful whether Japan would offer financial aid, but I’m pretty optimistic when it comes to Tokyo’s possible apology,” he said.
He pointed out that any financial aid could trigger other surviving victims across Asia to ask Japan to do the same for them.
Korea and Japan have begun their preparations for the 10th round of high-level discussions to settle the issues related to sex slavery, according to diplomatic sources, Tuesday.