Tension rises over WWII sex slaves

SEOUL: South Korea will take legal action to shut down a Japan-funded foundation compensating domestic victims of wartime sexual slavery, known as “comfort women”, potentially reviving a major source of tension between the two US allies.

Seoul plans to distribute the leftover funds “by collecting the opinions of the victims and related organisations,” South Korea’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said in a statement yesterday. It’s expected to take six months to a year to disband, Yonhap News reported.

The foundation was established the year after a landmark 2015 agreement between former South Korean president Park Geunhye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In 2015, Mr Abe apologised to the South Korean women coerced into Japanese military brothels before and during World War II, with his government agreeing to provide 1 billion yen (293 million baht) to the fund.

Mr Abe said at a briefing yesterday in Tokyo that the 2015 agreement was “final and irreversible”.

“As a member of the international community, Japan has faithfully carried out its promises,” he said in comments broadcast on NHK. “If international pledges are not kept, relations between countries won’t be viable. I would like to see South Korea deal with this responsibly, as a member of the international community.”

Mr Abe’s foreign minister, Taro Kono, said Japan couldn’t accept South Korea’s announcement and urged that the remaining funds not be used for purposes contrary to the pact. Mr Kono also confirmed that vice-foreign minister Takeo Akiba called in the South Korean ambassador Lee Su Hoon to make a formal protest.

Japan colonised the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, a period many Koreans still recall with resentment. Historians say anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 women — many of them Korean — served in Japan’s military brothels.