Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
January 4, 2016
South Korea, Japan settle deal on wartime Korean sex slaves
By Hyung-jin Kim and Foster Klug
The Associated Press
S
EOUL, South Korea — The foreign ministers of
South Korea and Japan have reached a deal meant
to resolve a decades-long impasse over Korean
women forced into Japanese military-run brothels during
World War II, an important breakthrough for the
Northeast Asian powers.
The deal, which included an apology from Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a 1 billion yen ($8.3
million) aid fund from Tokyo for the elderly former sex
slaves, could reverse decades of animosity and mistrust
between the thriving democracies, trade partners, and
staunch U.S. allies.
“This marks the beginning of a new era of Japan-South
Korea ties,” Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida told
reporters at a news conference. Abe, he said, apologizes
“from his heart” to the women for their pain and for “scars
that are difficult to heal physically and mentally.”
The issue of former Korean sex slaves, euphemistically
known as “comfort women,” has been the biggest recent
source of friction between Seoul and Tokyo, especially
since the hawkish Abe’s 2012 inauguration.
Japan appeared emboldened to make the overture after
the first formal leaders’ meeting between the neighbors in
three-and-a-half years, in November, and after South
Korean courts recently acquitted a Japanese reporter
charged with defaming South Korea’s president and
refused to review a complaint by a South Korean seeking
individual compensation for Japan’s forceful mobilization
of workers during colonial days.
Many South Koreans feel lingering bitterness over
Japan’s brutal colonial occupation of the Korean
Peninsula between 1910 and 1945. But South Korean
officials have also faced calls to improve ties with Japan,
the world’s No. 3 economy and a regional powerhouse, not
least from U.S. officials eager for a strong united front
against a rising China and North Korea’s pursuit of
nuclear-armed missiles that could target the American
mainland.
South Korean foreign minister Yun Byung-se said at a
news conference that Seoul considers the agreement
“final and irreversible,” as long as Japan faithfully follows
through with its promises.
Seoul, meanwhile, will refrain from criticizing Japan
over the issue, and will talk with “relevant organizations”
— a reference to civic groups representing the former sex
slaves — to try to resolve Japan’s grievance with a statue
of a girl representing victims of Japanese sexual slavery
that sits in front of the Japanese Embassy in downtown
Seoul. Yun said South Korea recognizes Japan’s worries
about security over the statue, where anti-Tokyo protests
take place weekly.
LONG-AWAITED SETTLEMENT. Former South Korean sex
slave Lee Oak-sun, center, who was forced to serve for the Japanese
Army during World War II, sits after a meeting with a South Korean For-
eign Ministry official at the House of Sharing, the home for the living sex
slaves, in Gwangju, South Korea. A day after trumpeting an “irreversible”
settlement of a decades-long standoff over Korean women forced into
sexual slavery by Japan’s World War II military, there’s relief among
South Korean and Japanese diplomats, fury among activists and many
of the elderly victims, and general public indifference in both countries.
(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
There has long been resistance in South Korea to past
Japanese apologies because many here wanted Japan to
acknowledge that it has a legal responsibility for the
women. Japan long argued that the issue was settled by a
1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties and was
accompanied by more than $800 million in economic aid
and loans from Tokyo to Seoul.
Kishida said the comfort-women system “deeply hurt
the honor and dignity of many women under the
involvement of the Japanese military at the time, and
Japan strongly feels responsibility.”
Historians say tens of thousands of women from around
Asia, many of them Korean, were sent to frontline
military brothels to provide sex to Japanese soldiers. In
South Korea, 46 such women are still alive, mostly in their
late 80s or early 90s.
Better relations between South Korea and Japan are a
priority for Washington. The two countries together host
about 80,000 U.S. troops and are members of now-stalled
regional talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear
ambitions in return for aid.
Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this story.
New Year’s Eve skyscraper fire
in Dubai smolders into 2016
By Jon Gambrell
The Associated Press
D
UBAI, United Arab Emirates — A towering
inferno that engulfed a 63-story luxury hotel in
Dubai on New Year’s Eve still smoldered through
the first day of 2016 as firefighters worked to douse its
embers.
Authorities said they were still working to determine
the cause of the fire that erupted prior to the city’s
fireworks extravaganza and raced through the Address
Downtown, one of the most upscale hotels and residences
in Dubai. It came after a series of fires striking the towers
that provide the megacity its futuristic skyline.
Dubai officials said only 14 people suffered minor
injuries in evacuating the building, but the fire raised new
questions about building safety for those living in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Continued on page 15
Miss Universe show, host apologize
for crowning wrong woman
Continued from page 8
ous Miss Universe on NBC,
in January, reached 7.7
million people.
NBC
dumped
the
pageant after Trump, its
then-owner, angered many
Latinos with comments
about immigration. Trump
subsequently sold the
pageant and tweeted after
the flub that it “would
never have happened” on
his watch. He retweeted
someone else’s comment
that Trump must be happy
that the pageant had gone
“off the rails” after he sold
it.
He softened his tone in
an interview on NBC’s
“Today”
show,
calling
Harvey a “great guy” who
handled it well. Trump said
if he were still in charge of
the show, he would make
the women share the title.
“Things happen,” he
said. “It’s live television.”
Harvey, the comedian,
found himself the butt of
internet jokes on the
Monday following the
pageant. One prominent
post showed his smiling
face under the headline:
“Happy Friday!” followed
by “Wait, sorry, it’s
Monday.”
Last year, the winner of
the Miss Florida pageant
had to give back her crown
following a vote-tabulation
error that was noticed days
later. And a transcribing
error caused the wrong
author’s name to be
announced for a National
Book Award in 2011.
Neither event happened on
live television, however.
Associated Press writers Kimberly
Pierceall in Las Vegas, Jacobo
Garcia in Bogota, Colombia,
Tony Winton in Orlando, Florida,
and Hillel Italie in New York
contributed to this report.
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