Japan Press Weekly

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2011 December 14 - 20 TOP3 [HISTORY]

Japan and South Korea disagree on ‘comfort women’ issue

Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko on December 18 told South Korean President Lee Myung Bak that the issue of compensation for wartime “comfort women” has already been settled.

In their one-hour talks in Kyoto, Lee described the issue of Japan’s wartime sex enslavement of Korean women as an “obstacle to bilateral relations” and urged the Japanese leader to show “sincere courage to resolve” this issue. Noda, however, stated that the issue was officially settled.

Referring to the recent placement of a statue in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul representing the “comfort women”, Noda said that it is “very regrettable” and called for the statue to be removed as soon as possible.

Lee reportedly responded to Noda by saying that without sincere action from Japan there would be the placement of second and third statues.

Noda is taking the position taken by successive Liberal Democratic Party governments claiming that the issue of wartime sex slavery was settled by a bilateral claims agreement concluded in 1965 in accordance with the Japan-Korean Basic Treaty.

The agreement stipulated that Japan provides economic cooperation funds for South Korea in exchange for Korean individuals giving up their right to initiate claims against Japan’s wartime colonial rule.

On the other hand, the South Korean side insists that the “comfort women” issue was not included in the bilateral agreement. On August 30, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that the issue is not a subject to the claims agreement and that the South Korean government should carry out bilateral negotiations for Japan’s compensation for damages.

In 2005, a diplomatic document released by the South Korean government revealed that the “right to claim” which South Korea gave up in 1965 does not cover the “comfort women” issue.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government has failed to release any diplomatic documents related to the bilateral treaty.

Japan, which groundlessly claims that the issue was settled, should sincerely negotiate with South Korea, said Akahata.