Week3 - Japan-Korea ‘comfort women’ deal fails to placate victims

    Rallies have been held weekly in the South Korean capital since 1992 demanding a Japanese admission of responsibility and legal reparations for victims who were forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers. Wednesday’s rally highlighted how Monday’s settlement was insufficient for many Koreans to bury the hatchet.

    Under the accord, Japan offered to pay $8.3m into a fund for surviving victims based on “painful awareness” of its responsibilities for the system of forced prostitution, while Seoul promised not to press any future claims.

    But many protesters said the agreement was “humiliating”, accusing the government of Park Geun-hye, South Korean president, of caving in to Tokyo.

    In line with previous statements from Tokyo, anapology from Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister, stopped short of taking full legal responsibility, admitting only the “involvement” of the country’s military authorities.

    “Abe has yet to realise what his country has done to us,” said Lee Yong-su, an 88-year-old former sex slave who joined the rally. “I am at a loss for words . . . This kind of irresponsible negotiation is like killing us twice, three times.”

    Seoul said the deal was “final and irrevocable”, leaving little room for South Korea to pursue other historical disputes, such as compensation for labourers forced to work in Japanese wartime industries such as coal mining.

   “Abe’s apology is just lip service. I don’t see anything more advanced than the Kono statement,” said Kwon Oh-hyun, a 79-year-old man participating in the rally, referring to the 1993 admission that Japan coerced many thousands of women into sexual servitude during the second world war. “It is humiliating to accept such a small donation from Japan in return for not raising the issue any more.”

    Many South Koreans suspect the US, which welcomed the deal, is behind the agreement. Washington has pushed for a rapprochement between its two Asian allies to guard against China’s rising power and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

[US President Barack] Obama must have arm-twisted both Japan and South Korea to settle the issue as soon as possible,” said Bong Young-shik, researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.Ms Park, who had refused to meet Mr Abe unless he showed sufficient remorse for Japan’s past wrongdoing, held her first bilateral talks with her Tokyo counterpart in November and agreed to push for a resolution in the comfort women dispute.

    “But Seoul’s fear of diplomatic isolation must have deepened after Mr Abe at the summit surprisingly expressed his desire to settle the issue by the end of the year.”

    Mr Abe’s successful visit to the US last spring, his renewed summit meetings with China and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal have highlighted the risks of estrangement from Tokyo, and the TPP could give Japan better access than South Korea to the US market.

    Seoul has expressed its interest in joining the TPP, but that requires consensus among members — another benefit of better relations with Tokyo.

    Observers say Monday’s deal will encourage Seoul and Tokyo to bolster their security alliance against North Korea, building on the trilateral intelligence-sharing agreement signed with Washington.

    Her father, the former military dictator Park Chung-hee, served as an officer in the Japanese Imperial army and signed the 1965 treaty through which South Korea normalised relations with Japan and renounced legal claims against its former colonial ruler.But the comfort women deal could prove a political liability for Ms Park, who has been portrayed by her opponents as a “pro-Japanese traitor”.

   Analysts said the deal could also further complicate Seoul attempts to balance relations with the US and China. Ms Park has sought to reinforce her ties with Xi Jinping, China’s president, by attending September’s military parade in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war.

Structure of the Lead 

WHO-The comfort women of Korea,Japan government

WHEN-2015

WHAT-Comfort woman ask the Japan government to apologize

WHY-These comfort woman are vicitims during world war two

WHERE-Korea and Japan

HOW-grief

keywords:

painful 痛苦的,困難的

bilateral 有兩面的,雙邊的

summit 頂點,最高階層

alliance 聯盟,聯合

trilateral 有三邊的,對三者有關系的

renounce 拒絕,放棄,否認,墊牌

attend 出席,參加;照顧

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