Latest editorial
Japan: Tokyo agrees reparations to South Korean sex slaves
SEOUL and Tokyo agreed yesterday on reparations for Japan’s forcing of women into sex slavery during World War II.
The agreement, which will include an official apology from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, ends decades of tension between the two countries over the abuse of so-called “comfort women” by Japanese troops.
It is seen as a triumph for the US, which has pressed its Far Eastern allies to end years of mutual hostility in the face of China’s rising power.
Japan will also establish a 1 billion yen (£5.6 million) support fund for the victims.
There are just 46 South Korean victims surviving, now in their 80s and 90s.
A joint statement by the two governments called the systematic rape “a grave affront to the honour and dignity of large numbers of women.”
It said Mr Abe expressed “his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds.”
Similar stories
In a speech to the 12th Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, SEVIM DAGDELEN warns of a growing historical revisionism to whitewash Germany and Japan’s role in WWII as part of a return to a cold war strategy from the West — but multipolarity will win out
JEREMY CORBYN reports from Hiroshima where he represented CND at the 80th anniversary of the bombing of the city by the US
