The first leader of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation, a foundation set up by the South Korean government to support former “comfort women” with Japanese funding, resigns.
SEOUL – The first leader of a foundation set up by the South Korean government to support former “comfort women” with Japanese funding announced her resignation last week at a board meeting, sources familiar with the matter said Sunday.
Comfort women is the euphemism for the girls and women forced to work in military brothels before and during World War II.
The resignation of Kim Tae-hyeon comes as the liberal administration of President Moon Jae-in, who took office in May, has maintained a critical view of the 2015 agreement and questioned its legitimacy.
“I did what I had to do, ” Kim, a professor emeritus at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul, said at the board meeting Wednesday. The executive directors of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation are expected to stay on.
Gender Equality and Family Minister Chung Hyun-back, whose portfolio covers issues involving comfort women, recently said the foundation would be subject to a complete review.
Last week, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said that seeking a renegotiation of the bilateral agreement “is an option” based on the results of a review conducted by a task force she will set up.
