Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday warned South Korea it risked damaging ties by disbanding a fund meant to settle compensation for South Korean women forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War Two.
"If international pledges are broken then forging ties between countries becomes impossible and as a member of the international community we urge South Korea to act responsibly,” Abe told reporters at his residence in Tokyo.
Read more: S. Korea to shut down Japan-funded 'comfort women' charity
Under a 2015 deal, Japan apologized to the “comfort women” – Japan's euphemism for Asian women, many of them Korean, forced to work in its wartime brothels. Tokyo provided a 1-billion-yen (8.9-billion-U.S. dollar) fund to help them.
People in Seoul welcome the South Korean government's decision to dissolve a foundation tasked with settling the issue of Korean women forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels, November 21, 2018. /VCG Photo
On Wednesday, South Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said it planned to dissolve the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation after consulting with victims, their advocates and related agencies.
“We will make utmost efforts to carry out policy that can help the victims recover their honor and dignity,” Minister Jin Sun-mee said in a statement.
The two countries share a bitter history that includes Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, and the issue of comfort women has been a major obstacle to better relations.
Abe told South Korea's President Moon Jae-in in February the 2015 pact settled the dispute, but Moon said Japan was in no position to declare that as the “perpetrator of wartime crimes against humanity.”
The South Korean ministry said it will discuss with Tokyo on what to do with the balance of the fund, which at the end of October stood at 16.08 billion won (14.21 million U.S. dollars), including Seoul's contributions.