Input 2021.01.09 09:00
Dissolution of the Civil Government Reconciliation and Healing Foundation… I don’t ask for renegotiation
“Recall that it is an official agreement” after 3 years
A message that the relationship between Korea and Japan should not worsen
The Korea-Japan comfort women agreement, which had been destroyed, was revived after three years. This happened after a Korean court ruling came out on the 8th that the Japanese government is responsible for reparing victims of comfort women. The agreement was not officially announced by the government to abandon it, but it was being accepted as private. But after three years, it came to the surface with the expression “official agreement”.
On December 28, 2015, the Park Geun-hye administration signed a comfort agreement between Korea and Japan at a meeting of foreign ministers. In 2011, the Constitutional Court decided that it was unconstitutional for the government not to make specific efforts for the victims of comfort women (opportunity), in order to solve the problem of comfort women, which became the biggest issue between Korea and Japan.
In this agreement, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said to the victims of comfort women, “I express apology and reflection from my heart.” The Japanese government decided to support the victims through a foundation (Reconciliation and Healing Foundation) with a budget. On this premise, he said, “I confirm that the (comfort women) problem will be finally and irreversibly solved.” The Korean government also said, “We confirm that this issue will be finally and irreversibly resolved.”
According to this agreement, Japan contributed 1 billion yen (about 10 billion won), and the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation was launched in July 2016. The Korean government decided to pay 100 million won in cash to survivors and 20 million won to the deceased among the victims of comfort women in the Japanese military through this foundation.
However, the agreement immediately became controversial in politics. The Democratic Party, the opposition party at the time, criticized it as “a humiliating agreement.” Some comfort women victims refused to receive cash through the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation. President Moon, who was a Democratic presidential candidate at the time of the Democratic Party’s presidential election in April 2017, ahead of the presidential election, said, “It is an unacceptable and invalid agreement.”
After the inauguration of the Moon Jae-in administration, the Korea-Japan comfort agreement was virtually destroyed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs created the “Task Force for Reviewing the Agreement on Victims of Japanese Military Comfort Women in Korea and Japan” under the direct control of the Minister, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha agreed to a “private agreement” such as that the Korean government is working to relocate the girl award on December 27, 2017 Announced that there was.
President Moon Jae-in said in his position the next day, “It was confirmed that the comfort women negotiations between the two governments in 2015 had serious defects both procedurally and in terms of content. As a president, this agreement with the people cannot solve the comfort women problem. Clearly reveals again.” In fact, the agreement was eliminated.
President Moon also explained that the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation could not function properly during a summit meeting with Prime Minister Abe in New York, USA, who visited the United Nations General Assembly in September 2018. However, he said, “I will not cancel the agreement or request renegotiation.” The Reconciliation and Healing Foundation was disbanded in November 2018, and it was accepted that the Korea-Japan Comfort Agreement was virtually destroyed. However, of the money the Japanese government paid, 6 billion won is kept by the Korean government.
However, the Japan-Korea comfort agreement reappeared after three years. This is because the Korean-Japanese relations that showed signs of improvement after the inauguration of the Suga Cabinet appeared when the Korean court ruled on the 8th that it admitted to the Japanese government that it was responsible to compensate victims of comfort women.
On this afternoon, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a comment in the name of a spokesperson, saying, “The government respects the judgment of the courts” and said, “To restore the honor and dignity of the victims of comfort women, the Korean government will do everything it can.” He said, “The government is reminding that the agreement between Korea and Japan in December 2015 is an official agreement between the two governments.”
Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Kato Katsunobu expressed “very regrettable” for the’comfort women’ decision on the day, and the comfort women issue was “a final and irreversible solution to the Japan-Korea agreement in 2015.” It was confirmed between the two,” he said and came out.
Lee Won-deok, a professor at Kookmin University’s Department of Japanese Studies, responded to the response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the judgment of the comfort women, “the government does not seem to have any intention of worsening the relationship between Korea and Japan.” He said, “The frame of the Japanese government’s (court ruling) and the frame of consensus for comfort women are not so inconsistent,” and predicted that the government could use the balance of 6 billion won in the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation to solve the problem.