Japan-South Korea ‘Comfort Women’ Deal Faces Backlash in Seoul
SEOUL—A deal between Japan and South Korea to settle a dispute over wartime sexual slavery helps create a path for the countries to work more closely on regional security, but a backlash in Korea threatens to complicate progress.
On Monday, Tokyo and Seoul said they had “finally and irreversibly” resolved a decades long spat over reparations for Korean women used as forced sex workers by the Japanese military in the 1930s and 1940s. Under the deal, Tokyo agreed to pay around $8 million in support funds for the surviving women and extended an apology from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
U.S. officials heralded the agreement as a breakthrough that improves coordination between its allies in Northeast Asia against the military threat from North Korea and China’s increasing assertiveness. A senior U.S. official said it was as strategically important for Washington as the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
One potential step to increase bilateral cooperation is for Seoul to sign an agreement with Tokyo on sharing military intelligence, such as on North Korea’s nuclear missile program. South Korea has declined to complete the pact since 2012 because of domestic political pressure against closer links with Japan. Instead, the U.S. acts as a go-between to pass on information between the Asian nations.
In October, South Korea’s defense minister told his Japanese counterpart that historical grievances, such as the issue of sexual slavery of Korean women, needed to be addressed before a deal can be forged on direct exchanges of intelligence. The so-called “comfort women” dispute is the core issue of several legacies of Japan’s 35-year colonization of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to the end of World War II that continue to irritate bilateral ties.
SEOUL—A deal between Japan and South Korea to settle a dispute over wartime sexual slavery helps create a path for the countries to work more closely on regional security, but a backlash in Korea threatens to complicate progress.
A spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether Seoul would consider moving forward with the military information-sharing deal.
South Korea’s government may first be focused on building domestic support for the comfort women agreement. A survey published on Thursday by Realmeter showed 50.7% of the South Korean public felt the deal was unsatisfactory, compared with 43.2% who were satisfied. The dissatisfaction rating rose to around 70% among those in their 20s and 30s, the poll showed.
The survey results didn’t include reasons for the respondents’ answers, but former comfort women and activists have criticized the agreement for failing to state the legal liability of the Japanese government. A South Korean Foreign Ministry official said in a media briefing that the agreement is sufficient because it acknowledges Japan’s responsibility for the system of sexual slavery.
Some former comfort women have also been angered by the government’s lack of consultation with them during negotiations with Japan. “Why should the government rashly reach a deal? We won’t accept it,” local media reported that 90-year-old former comfort women Kim Kun-ja told a senior government official during a visit to a shelter for the women the day after the agreement was announced.
Activists have pledged to continue to oppose the agreement. On Wednesday, two former comfort women joined a protest of several hundred people outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul against the deal. The same day, a local court opened a damages suit against the Japanese government on behalf of 10 former comfort women.
Structure of the Lead：
WHEN- not given
WHAT- A deal between Japan and South Korea
WHERE- Japan and South Korea
WHO- Comfort Women
HOW- not given
Keywords：
1. dispute 爭議
2. reparations 賠償
3. herald 先鋒
4. bilateral 雙方
5. regional 區域性
6. dissatisfaction 不滿
7. rashly 貿然
8. pledge to承諾
沒有留言:
張貼留言