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Japan minister hopes for steady implementation of "comfort women" pact

By REUTERS

AUGUST 3, 2017 15:21

TOKYO - Japan's new foreign minister, Taro Kono, on Thursday expressed hope for steady implementation of a 2015 pact with South Korea on the issue of "comfort women," forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels.

Kono, 54, is the son of former chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono, who wrote a landmark 1993 apology to "comfort women."

Under the 2015 pact, Japan apologized again to former comfort women and promised 1 billion yen ($9 million) for a fund to help them. The two governments agreed the issue would be "irreversibly resolved" if both fulfilled their obligations.

"Regarding the issue of 'comfort women', Prime Minister Abe's statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, and an agreement between Japan and South Korea are everything," Kono said.

"I think it is desirable for the agreement to be implemented steadily."

However, South Korea's president Moon Jae-in has said its people did not accept the deal reached by his conservative predecessor, Park Geun-hye, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

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