Japan and South Korea set to settle sex slave dispute

Japan and South Korea appear ready to settle a bitter dispute over Japanese wartime sex slaves, which has strained relations between the two countries for more than half a century.

Japan is expected to propose creating a government-backed fund to help the so-called “comfort women” as part of an agreement when the two countries’ foreign ministers meet in Seoul today.

One proposal was for 100 million yen ($1.2 million) fund that would pay out 10 years’ worth of aid at once.

South Korea and other Asian countries say the Japanese Army forced thousands of women to work in military brothels during World War II. The fate of the comfort women is a hugely emotional issue in South Korea and a source of much of the distrust between the two countries.

As part of any agreement, Japan wants South Korea to drop any further financial claims and also remove a statue of a Korean girl, symbolising comfort women, from outside the Japanese Embassy in the South Korean capital.

Japan is likely to demand that any settlement be final. The South Korean Government may be willing to compromise, local media say.

“In a diplomatic negotiation, there can never be a 100-0 win,” a South Korean Government official told the Joonang Daily. “The goal is keeping the score 51-49, but making each side think it has won 51.”

Japan issued a landmark 1993 statement that expressed “sincere apologies and remorse”. But it has long maintained that the dispute was settled in a 1965 normalisation agreement with South Korea, which saw Tokyo make a payment of US$800 million ($1.17 billion) in grants or loans to its former colony.

Seoul is demanding a fresh formal apology and compensation.

But even if the two governments reach agreement, the issue of comfort women is unlikely to disappear.

“There will always be a segment of the Korean public that’s not happy . . . and there’ll always be Japanese who’ll make statements that will enrage Koreans,” said Robert Dujarric of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University’s Japan campus.