hankyoreh

About 200 members of the “Gathering of Torontonians who remember the Sewol ferry disaster” and other Canadian-Koreans hold signs to press for the nullification of the recent South Korea-Japan agreement on the comfort women at a rally held next to the comfort women statue set in front of Toronto’s Korean Centre

Trouble may well be looming for the agreement reached on Dec. 28 between the South Korean and Japanese foreign ministers on the issue of the so-called comfort women, who were forced to serve as sex slaves for the Imperial Japanese Army. The potential deal breakers are the establishment of a foundation in which the Japanese government has agreed to donate 1 billion yen (US$8.30 million) and the debate about relocating the statue of a young girl, which symbolizes the comfort women.

The debate about relocating the statue, which the South Korean government and some experts initially dismissed as a “secondary concern,” is becoming a bone of contention both between the South Korean and Japanese governments and between the South Korean government and domestic activist groups.

Even though the statue is “a living historical symbol that commemorates the spirit of the Wednesday demonstrations,” as the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Jeongdaehyeop) put it on Dec. 28, the statue has been a thorn in the side of Japan, which has continued to call for its removal.

Jan. 2. (left) (photo provided by Kelly Lee)

The Wednesday demonstrations have been held weekly for 24 years, without missing a single week, adding up to 1,211 demonstrations altogether.

After a Dec. 30 article by Japanese newspaper the Asahi Shimbun added fuel to the fire with the claim that “there is internal confirmation in the South Korean government that the relocation of the statue is a precondition for Japan donating money to the foundation,” the South Korean government moved to put out the fire, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating that same evening that the claim was “completely unfounded” and an “absurd fabrication.” The very speed of this response underscores the sensitivity of this issue.

But even after the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ official denial, the Japanese media continued to cover the story, quoting government sources. On the evening of Dec. 30, Kyodo News reported that “the decision to regard the removal of the statue as a precondition for donating to the fund reflected the firm resolution of Prime Minister Abe,” while the Nikkei wrote in its Dec. 31 issue that “the final issue, about which deliberations continued until immediately before the Dec. 28 meeting, was the question of the statue.”

This controversy can largely be attributed to the fact that the issue of the statue - which is not even under the jurisdiction of the South Korean central government - was oddly included in the settlement reached on Dec. 28. Given the ambiguity of the language that appears in the settlement - namely, that the South Korean government “recognizes” the Japanese government’s concerns about the statue and that it will “work to bring about an appropriate resolution by engaging in deliberations with the organizations concerned” - it was inevitable that this would be read as a promise couched in diplomatic rhetoric that the South Korean government would resolve the Japanese government’s concerns.

But a Dec. 30 poll by Realmeter indicates that two out of three South Koreans are opposed to moving the statue, while 86.8% of people in their twenties are opposed with only 4.1% in favor, showing that opposition to the relocation is even stronger among the younger generation. In effect, the South Korean government is trapped between the Japanese government and South Korean civic groups, leaving it with few options. The issue of the statue seems set to become a litmus test that will determine whether the settlement will receive the approval and ratification of South Korean society.

The plan to establish a foundation to carry out projects to support the former comfort women and to console them in their suffering, to be established by the South Korean government and funded by the Japanese government to the amount of 1 billion yen, has also run into a serious roadblock.

Jeongdaehyeop, the key organization that has worked with the former comfort women to publicize this issue on the domestic and international stages, has effectively refused to work with the foundation. On Dec. 31, the organization announced that it would set up a private-sector foundation to bring about a proper resolution to the comfort women issue, with the goal of raising 10 billion won (roughly equivalent to 1 billion yen) from the public.

If the former comfort women and Jeongdaehyeop choose not to participate in the foundation, the South Korean government will basically have no way to get it off the ground.

But the attitude of the Japanese government is that “the first step is for South Korea to set up the foundation, since the project cannot go forward without that,” as Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ official in charge of Northeast Asia said on Dec. 28. The implication is that Japan cannot donate the 1 billion won until the foundation has been launched.

Unless the foundation is launched and the relevant programs get off to a meaningful start, it will be impossible to confirm whether the South Korean and Japanese governments have actually achieved the “final and irreversible settlement” they have touted, since the settlement is predicated on these programs.

By Lee Je-hun, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]