Kang Kyung-wha, the foreign minister of South Korea, said that the 2015 settlement was a valid bilateral agreement and she would not try to renegotiate a contentious deal with Japan.
Financial Times: South Korea will not renegotiate ‘comfort women’ deal with Japan
The 2015 settlement was dealt between South Korea and Japan. The two nations approved the declaration which this issue is finally and irreversibly resolved with one billion JPY (8.9m USD) compensation from Japan to a South Korean foundation.
This deal was established by Park, the ex-president. But some Koreans have insisted this deal is invalid. The current president Moon was also willing to reconsider the deal.
Kang said that this deal is agreed by the two nations through an official procedure. Thus, she considered it is difficult to negate the deal based on Korean consideration.
On the other hand, she is planning to prepare a whole amount of compensation money from the government instead of using Japanese money. She did not say whether to return the money to Japan.
Korean government seems to avoid that comfort women will owe Japan for receiving money. Indeed, it is said that 36 of 47 women has already received the money given from Japan.
I think Korean policy replacing Japanese money with Korean is makeshift. But, I will never say Korean women are mean because of receiving money. More or less, they were the victim of the war.
On the other hand, renegotiation is nonsense, I believe. In this point of view, I am on the side of Japan. There is no perfect solution. Each leader has his or her own ideology. If negotiation is arranged after every amendment of administration, the international relationship would never become stable.
In such a meaning, Kang is right. And her statement will ignite hatred of Korean people who are right-wing, I am afraid. I respect her decision.
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