Seoul urges Tokyo to honor Dec. 28 deal



By Kim Hyo-jin





The government has warned Japan not to try to scuttle the "comfort women" deal, criticizing Tokyo for its recent denial regarding the coercion of Korean women into sexual slavery before and during World War II.



The warning came Sunday after Tokyo formally denied the coercion of the wartime sex slaves in its most recent report to a United Nations committee, right after Japan signed the deal with Korea on Dec. 28.



The denial is a the violation of the agreement to solve the longtime issue between the two countries.



Civic activists and scholars also hit out at the Japanese government for its renewed denial, urging Korea to take strong action against the move, which is apparently aimed at watering down Tokyo's wartime crimes against humanity on the international stage.



"The coercion in mobilizing women as sex slaves by the Japanese military is an undeniable historical fact," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, referring to a 1996 report on wartime "comfort women" by a U.N. special rapporteur that stated the forced nature.



In the recent deal, Tokyo acknowledged its military involvement, provided an apology and pledged to offer 1 billion yen ($8.29 million) in reparations for the surviving victims. Japan said that the deal resolved the dispute in a "final and irreversible" manner.



"Irreversible applies to both sides and means that Japan also should not make comments that reverse the accord," the statement said. "We'd like to point out that the Japanese government should implement the accord in an unwavering manner and that is the basic spirit of our deal."



The ministry said it is now seeking countermeasures.



The denial prompted speculation that Tokyo is renewing its attempt to deny the forceful nature of the wartime sexual slavery despite the deal that "settled" the dispute over the issue.



"Seoul should officially rebuke this argument and discuss the issue from square one as Japan has broken the deal," said Yoon Mi-hyang, head of the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, a nongovernmental organization for the victims.



Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong University, said Japan's move can be seen as a breach of the deal. "Military involvement includes the act of coercion. Denying the forced nature naturally breaches the accord," he said.



"The Korean government should respond to the undermining of the agreement sternly," Kim Yeol-su, an international politics professor at Sungshin Women's University. "It reflects that Japan did not engage in the deal sincerely in the first place."



Tokyo again claimed that there is no evidence to prove the victims were coerced into sexual servitude for soldiers in a report delivered to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in late December, according to the Website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.



It came as a response to the committee's request for Japan to present the background of its recent comments that denied the forcible mobilization of sexual slavery victims.



"The government of Japan has conducted a full-scale fact-finding study on the comfort women issue since the early 1990s when the issue started to be taken up as a political issue between Japan and the Republic of Korea," the report said. "Forceful taking away of comfort women by the military and government authorities could not be confirmed in any of the documents."



Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered the same view on Jan. 18, drawing criticism from the Korean government and activists supporting the surviving victims.



Abe said in a parliamentary committee meeting that there was no evidence to prove women were forcibly mobilized as sex slaves by Japan's military during the war, adding the stance has not been changed since it was adopted by a Cabinet meeting in 2007.



The Korean government denounced Abe for his remarks, saying that he should not undermine the implementation of the agreement.



Lee Myeon-woo, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, said Japan will continue to go abrogate the accord with Korea on the international stage.



"Although it refrained from such a position while it tried to strike a deal with Korea, it will renew its efforts to appeal its position in the international community whenever it has to protect its national image," he said.



