South Korea, Japan reach
agreement on 'comfort women'
By Holly Yan, KJ
Kwon, Junko Ogura and Tiffany Ap, CNN
Updated 0852 GMT
(1652 HKT) December 29, 2015
(CNN)Japan and South Korea have reached an
agreement over the long-standing
issue of "comfort women," a term that describes sex slaves used by
the Japanese military during World War II.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida
said his government will give 1 billion yen ($8.3 million) to a fund to help
those who suffered.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se
said that as long as Tokyo sticks to
its side of the deal, Seoul will consider the issue "irreversibly"
resolved.
In addition, the two governments "will
refrain from
criticizing and blaming each other in the international society, including the
United Nations," Yun said at a joint
news conference Monday.
Kishida said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe "expresses anew
his most sincere apologies and remorse
to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and
suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women."
Abe later stated himself: "I think we
did our duty
for the current generation by reaching this final and irreversible resolution
before the end of the 70th year since the war."
'A diplomatic humiliation'
But an advocacy
group for former comfort women said the deal announced Monday is "a
diplomatic
humiliation."
"Although the Japanese government
announced that it 'feels (its) responsibilities,' the statement lacks the
acknowledgment of the fact that the colonial government and its military had
committed a systematic crime," said the Korean Council for the Women
Drafted
for Military Sexual Slavery. "The government had not just been simply
involved but actively initiated
the activities which were criminal and illegal."
The group took issue
that it did not address the issue of Japanese history textbooks glossing over
the scope
of the war crimes.
"Also, it is notable that the
agreement did not specify anything on preventative initiatives
such as truth seeking and history education," it said.
Japan helped establish the Asian Women's
Fund in 1995, which is supported by private donors
and provides assistance to former comfort women.
But up until now Tokyo had resisted direct
compensation to the victims, prompting activists and former comfort women to
say Japanese leaders were avoiding officially acknowledging what happened.
It's estimated that up to 200,000 women
were forced to be sex slaves for Japanese soldiers in World War II, mainly
Korean. Other women came from China, Taiwan and Indonesia.
The agreement stems from
accelerated talks that began in November. Last month, Japan, South Korea and
China announced they had 'completely restored' diplomatic relations.
The three countries had not met for three
years due to political tensions. South Korean President Park Guen-hye said at
the time that "comfort women" was the "biggest stumbling
block" to Seoul-Tokyo relations.
China's foreign ministry
spokesman Lu Kang said the forced recruitment of the "comfort women"
was a grave crime against humanity.
"The Chinese side always maintains
that the Japanese side should face up to
and reflect upon its history of aggression and properly deal with the relevant
issue with a sense of responsibility."
China, which was also occupied by Japan
prior to
and during the World War II has long been critical of its neighbor's role in
the war and its apparent lack of remorse for war crimes following defeat in
1945.
Chapter closed?
Only a few dozen of the women are still
alive today.
S.J. Friedman, author of "Silenced No
More: Voices of Comfort Women" said she doesn't believe this new
agreement, even with direct compensation, will close a chapter on Japan's
wartime sexual slavery.
"I think this is just the
beginning," she said.
"I've spoken to the comfort women
survivors and they don't want the money. They want a sincere apology, the one
that Willy Brandt gave at the Holocaust
memorial.
The Holocaust survivors said they were healed by that apology."
Japan, in the agreement, also asked South
Korea to remove a statue symbolizing comfort women that sits outside the
Japanese Embassy in Seoul.
"The activists are furious
by the deal," Friedman continued. "The wording
of the deal doesn't include the Japanese government systematically organized
the military enslavement
and the Japanese government wants the statue to be removed. I think it's
insincere."
One comfort woman's story
Kim Bok-dong was a 14-year-old girl when
the Japanese came to her village in Korea.
She said they told her she had no choice
but to leave her home and family to support the war effort by working at a
sewing
factory.
"There was no option not to go,"
the 89-year-old woman told CNN's Will Ripley this year. "If we didn't go,
we'd be considered traitors."
But instead of going to a sewing factory,
Kim said, she ended up in Japanese military brothels
in half a dozen countries.
There, Kim said, she was locked up and
ordered to perform acts no teenage girl -- or woman -- should be forced to do.
She described seemingly
endless days of soldiers lined up outside the brothel, called a "comfort
station."
"Our job was to revitalize
the soldiers," she said. "On Saturdays, they would start lining up at
noon. And it would last until 8 p.m."
Kim estimated each Japanese soldier took
around three minutes. They usually kept their boots and leg wraps on, hurriedly
finishing so the next soldier could have his turn. Kim says it was dehumanizing,
exhausting and often excruciating.
"When it was over, I couldn't even get
up. It went on for such a long time," she said. "By the time the sun
went down, I couldn't use my lower body at all."
Kim believes the years of physical abuse
took a permanent
toll on her body.
"There are no words to describe my
suffering," she said. "Even now. I can't live without medicine. I'm
always in pain."
CNN's Sol Han and Yazhou Sun contributed to
this report.
Structure of the Lead：
WHO- Japan and South Korea
WHAT- have reached an agreement
WHEN- during World War II
WHERE- not given
WHY- not given
HOW- not given
