South Korea Pres. Moon criticizes comfort women pact again

August 22, 2017

SEOUL- South Korean President Moon Jae-in showed his dissatisfaction Monday at the 2015 agreement with Japan to resolve the issue of Korean "comfort women" who were forced into prostitution for Japanese troops mostly during World War II.

At a meeting with a nonpartisan group of Japanese lawmakers in Seoul, Moon said that the agreement lacked a process to hold thorough discussions with surviving former comfort women and win their support.

Meanwhile, Moon and the Japanese lawmakers agreed that Japan and South Korea should work together in coping with North Korean nuclear and missile problems, sources with aces to the meeting said.

According to the South Korean government, Moon reiterated that the South Korean public cannot emotionally accept the agreement to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the comfort women issue.

A task force of the South Korean Foreign Ministry is currently reviewing the agreement.

According to the sources, the lawmakers, led by former Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, told Moon that some Japanese people are concerned about his recent remarks advocating compensation claims by South Korean individuals against Japanese companies for forced labor during the war. But the president made no reply.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Nukaga said that the group members and Moon exchanged frank opinions on the comfort women and forced labor issues while sharing the basic stance of developing future-oriented bilateral relations. Jiji Press