Seoul's top diplomat notes 'original sin' over wartime sexual slavery

By Kim Eun-jung

SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top diplomat called on Japan on Wednesday to show flexibility for progress in joint efforts to address the issue of Tokyo's wartime sexual slavery, raising a fundamental question of where the "original sin" lies.

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong made the appeal during a year-end press conference, amid the absence of visible progress in their efforts to address the issue involving former sex slaves, euphemistically called comfort women.

"The comfort women problem is an unprecedented infringement upon women's rights during the wartime," Chung said in a press conference. "I think the country that inflicted damage (on them) should handle this matter based on the same stance with us."

Chung pointed out that Seoul has offered various solutions to resolve the issue, but no progress has been made as Japan sticks to its earlier stance that a 2015 bilateral accord should be kept.

The minister said what the surviving victims truly want is a "sincere apology" and called on Japan to show a more "forward-looking" and "reasonable" response, noting, "You know too well where the original sin lies."

His remark came one day after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was behind the 2015 deal as then foreign minister, urged South Korea to abide by the bilateral agreement concerning the comfort women issue to improve the soured bilateral ties.

Based on the 2015 accord, Japan paid 1 billion yen ($8.7 million) for a foundation for comfort women, and about $3.7 million was handed over to the surviving victims and the families of the deceased.

In 2018, the Moon Jae-in administration disbanded the foundation established under the preceding conservative government and allocated 10.3 billion won to a gender equality foundation. But survivors refused to take the money from the foundation and instead demanded a sincere apology from the Japanese government.

The minister said Seoul and Tokyo have been negotiating over how to use the remaining fund, but they have so far failed to narrow differences.

"We are making efforts to resolve this issue under the principle that we don't nullify or renegotiate the accord as it is an official agreement between governments, and that's why it is hard," Chung added.

ejkim@yna.co.kr
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