SEOUL, Dec. 28 (UPI) — Japan and South Korea reached a deal to settle the issue of “comfort women,” sex slave victims forced to serve in Japanese military brothels during World War II.
Tokyo issued a formal apology and has agreed to pay $8.3 million for a fund that would go toward supporting the victims, the BBC reported Monday.
The announcement followed a meeting between Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korea’s top diplomat Yun Byung-se. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also called South Korean President Park Geun-hye to reiterate Kishida’s earlier apology.
Abe had told Japanese reporters Japan and South Korea are “now entering a new era,” and asked that the problem not be dragged into the next generation.
In a separate statement, Park said the deal was badly needed. Many of the victims, nine in 2015 alone, have died.
“I hope the mental pains of the elderly comfort women will be eased,” Park said.
There are 46 surviving comfort women in South Korea.
Activists on opposite sides of the spectrum in the two countries, however, expressed their dissatisfaction after the announcement.
South Korean news network YTN reported the news of the deal made headlines in Japan Monday, but conservative Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun described the deal as a “thorn lodged in the throat.”
The Japanese government also asked for the removal of a “peace monument” dedicated to the comfort women in the United States: a statue of a girl in traditional Korean dress.
An anti-foreigner group in Japan said in a statement the deal has dishonored Japan. The group said it would hold large-scale protests in January.
In South Korea, some of the last surviving comfort women criticized the deal, saying it did “not reflect our opinions,” South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported Monday.
On one hand, the women, whose ages range between 88 and 100, said they are grateful for government efforts, but on the other hand said the deal was not a legal remedy but rather a financial settlement.
Yu Hui-nam, a former comfort woman and activist, told South Korean reporters Monday the comfort woman monument should not be removed, even if financial compensation is offered.
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