Japan sets conditions for implementing agreement on "comfort women"

Kyodo, citing a Japanese government source on December 30, said Tokyo's plan to provide 1 billion yen (about 8.3 million USD) in support for women forced to work in wartime brothels for the Japanese military depends on the removal of a statue of a girl symbolizing the "comfort women" issue in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, South Korea.
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (Source: AFP)

The source said that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raised this condition amid some opposition to the plan if the statue was not removed after the two countries reached an agreement on the "comfort women issue" on December 28.
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According to this source, the Korean government also knows that Japan will only disburse the above amount of money on the condition that the statue is removed.
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Previously, on December 26, the South Korean government sent a diplomatic note of protest to Japan regarding Japanese media reports that Seoul was considering moving a statue of a girl symbolizing the "comfort women" issue from its location in front of the Japanese Embassy in the South Korean capital.

According to a South Korean Foreign Ministry official, the ministry summoned a senior official from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to explain that the South Korean government has no authority to decide on the statue because it was erected by a South Korean civil organization.

According to VIETNAM+