S. Korea to Dissolve Comfort Women Foundation

November 21, 2018

Seoul--The South Korean government said Wednesday that it will dissolve a foundation established under a 2015 agreement with Japan to support Korean "comfort women," who were forced to work at Japanese military brothels before and during World War II.

The decision looks certain to further escalate diplomatic tensions between the two Asian neighbors over history issues.

In a statement, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said that the decision reflects the current situation surrounding the foundation, as well as the result of the government's examinations of the body.

The ministry said it now plans to take legal procedures for the dissolution of the foundation, which was aimed at providing financial support to former comfort women, using one billion yen contributed by the Japanese government.

Following the announcement, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Akiba lodged a protest with South Korean Ambassador to Japan Lee Su-hoon at the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on the South Korean government to act in a responsible way. "The relationship between one country and another will collapse if an international promise is not observed," Abe said.

Japan maintains the position that there is no option for disbanding the foundation at the moment, as it is important to steadily implement the comfort women agreement.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference in Tokyo that Japan will continue to urge the South Korean government to share this position.

In December 2015, the Japanese and South Korean governments reached an agreement to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the comfort women issue between the two countries.

Following the inauguration of President Moon Jae-in in May 2017, however, the South Korean government launched a review of the negotiations that led to the accord, concluding that there were significant flaws in the process.

Seoul has since decided to replace the one-billion-yen Japanese contribution with funds from its own budget. The family ministry said in the statement that the South Korean Foreign Ministry will hold talks with Tokyo on the handling of the Japanese funds.

The foundation has provided 100 million won, or about 10 million yen, each to 34 of the 47 former comfort women who were alive at the time when the bilateral accord was reached.

It has also given 20 million won to relatives of 58 of 199 former comfort women who were dead at that time.

President Moon has argued that the 2015 bilateral agreement is not supported by his country's public, including former comfort women, and therefore does not represent a real solution to the comfort women issue.

At the same time, Moon has stated a position of not demanding the agreement be scrapped or renegotiated.

The South Korean decision to dissolve the foundation came amid already heightened tensions between the two countries over a ruling by South Korea's Supreme Court on Oct. 30 against major Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. <5401> over the issue of wartime forced labor. Jiji Press