[News Analysis] South Korea-Japan comfort women resolution faces blowback

Posted on : 2015-12-31 17:55 KST Modified on : 2015-12-31 17:55 KST
Japanese media reports Korean government tacitly agreed to the removal of comfort women statue as a precondition for US$8.3 million in compensation
University students who are members of the Peace Butterfly Network and other organizations express opposition to the removal of the statue and call for renegotiation of the recent comfort women settlement and for the Japanese government to acknowledge its legal responsibility during a candlelight vigil
University students who are members of the Peace Butterfly Network and other organizations express opposition to the removal of the statue and call for renegotiation of the recent comfort women settlement and for the Japanese government to acknowledge its legal responsibility during a candlelight vigil

The agreement reached by South Korea and Japan’s foreign ministers over the comfort women issue on Dec. 28 has been facing heavy turbulence in the two days since.

Government officials and news outlets in Japan have been issuing statements that seem to contradict the spirit of the agreement, while in South Korea the comfort women survivors themselves and advocacy groups like the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Jeongdaehyeop) have been up in arms over the terms. Opposition parties in South Korea have made open calls for annulling the agreement and reopening negotiations.

Meanwhile, the Blue House and Ministry of Foreign Affairs have appeared baffled by the mounting criticism. Some observers are now saying there is a possibility of the heavy backlash resulting in the agreement going down in history as a major diplomatic failure for President Park Geun-hye.

A Dec. 30 report in Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper quoted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as telling associates that “everything is over as of yesterday [Dec. 28] and we can’t apologize anymore.”

“I will not be speaking on this issue again,” Abe was quoted as saying of future relations with Seoul.

Abe also reportedly hinted at the South Korean government’s tacit consent to his attitude.

“I mentioned this fact in the telephone conversation [with Park on the evening of Dec. 28],” he was quoted as saying.

With signs that Abe has no intention of expressing any apology or remorse himself, the agreement is now vulnerable to charges that it represents a step backward from the 1995 establishment of the Asian Women’s Fund, which included personal letters of apology from the Japanese Prime Minister, or the so-called “Sasae plan” considered during the Lee Myung-bak presidency (2008-13).

Meanwhile, a game of “to tell the truth” is unfolding with reports in numerous Japanese news outlets that one of the conditions for Tokyo putting up one billion yen (9.743 billion won/US$8.3 million) out of its budget is the removal of a peace statue symbolizing the comfort women that currently stands in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

“Several Japanese government sources said that South Korea provided behind-the-scenes confirmation about the precondition,” the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported in a front-page article on Dec. 30.

The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper similarly quoted a senior Japanese government source as saying Tokyo had “requested to Seoul that the little girl statue be taken down as soon as possible, and confirmed that the South Korean government stated that it intends to work toward achieving that.”

A Blue House source strenuously denied the reports, saying they had “no basis whatsoever in fact.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se also expressed his “hope that there will be no words or actions from Japan that could generate misunderstandings.”

The growing controversy prompted Japan’s foreign ministry to confirm to the Hankyoreh on the afternoon of Dec. 30 that “the agreement is what Minister Kishida and Minister Yun stated at the press conference, no more, no less.”

“With the emotions in the [Japanese] public, there may be some people who would like to see the peace monument [statue] removed because we’re paying one billion yen, but those thoughts are very different from any kind of precondition to the promise,” the official said.

The group Jeongdaehyeop released a statement on Dec. 30 urging the governments of South Korea and Japan to “immediately cancel this hastily reached agreement and listen to the demands of the victims so they can resolve the comfort issue in a proper way that is acceptable to the victims.”

Jeongdaehyeop is currently planning to form a “response organization” with experts and representatives from civil society in South Korea and abroad, along with weekly relay demonstrations every Wednesday in front of little girl statues representing comfort women erected around the country.

Comfort woman survivor Lee Yong-soo, 88, also called for the agreement’s nullification while appearing at noon on Dec. 30 for the 1,211th Wednesday demonstration by survivors in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul’s Jongno district.

“If only to fulfill the wishes of the other women who have passed away already, we should be accepting an official apology and legal compensation from Japan,” Lee insisted.

Moon Jae-in, chairman of the opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea (TMPK), also called on Seoul to renegotiate the agreement while speaking at a supreme council meeting on Dec. 30.

“Since this agreement constitutes a pact or agreement whereby the public’s rights are forfeited, the public’s consent should be sought,” Moon said.

“Because there was no such consent, I hereby declare it null and void,” he added.

The TMPK now plans to submit a motion for Yun Byung-se’s removal as Minister of Foreign Affairs and to pursue a fact-finding investigation at the National Assembly Standing Committee level.

By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

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

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