Japan formally complained on Monday after South Korea’s foreign minister raised the issue of wartime « comfort women » at the top U. N. rights body, while warning that it should not be allowed to harm bilateral relations at a critical time in east Asia. « Comfort women » was Japan’s euphemism
Japan formally complained on Monday after South Korea’s foreign minister raised the issue of wartime « comfort women » at the top U. N. rights body, while warning that it should not be allowed to harm bilateral relations at a critical time in east Asia.
« Comfort women » was Japan’s euphemism for Asian women – many of them Korean – forced to work in its wartime brothels. Under a 2015 deal, Japan apologised to the women and provided a 1 billion yen (now $9.4 million) fund to help them, but South Korea has recently sought to revisit the issue.
The two U. S. allies, who share a bitter history including Japanese colonisation, are key to international efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
Kang Kyung-wha, foreign minister of South Korea, did not name Japan directly in her speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council, but called for a « victim-centered approach » to the issue of comfort women.
