ROK to dissolve Japan-funded foundation for wartime sex slavery victims

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea (ROK) decided on Wednesday to dissolve a Japan-funded foundation for the domestic victims of sex slavery during World War II as it was set up in defiance of the victims and their bereaved families.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which governs the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation, said it would launch a legal process to close down the foundation, based on the current situations and review results.

The ministry said it consulted with relevant offices, along with the Foreign Ministry, over ways to handle the foundation and collected various opinions.

The foundation was established in July 2016, with 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) offered by Japan after the then ROK's government of impeached president Park Geun-hye reached a final, irreversible agreement with Japan in December 2015 to settle the wartime sexual enslavement issue in return for the contribution.

Historians say as many as 400,000 women from Asian countries, including from the Korean Peninsula, were forced into sex slavery for Japanese military brothels during WWII. The Korean Peninsula was colonized by the Imperial Japan from 1910 to 1945.

The Moon Jae-in government, which was inaugurated in May 2017, decided to replenish the 1-billion-yen fund with its own budget as the living victims and civic groups supporting the victims protested against the foundation.

The victims demanded the Japanese government's sincere apology and its acknowledgement of legal responsibility for the wartime atrocities.

In 2018, six former ROK's sex slaves, euphemistically called comfort women, passed away. Among 240 comfort women victims, who identified themselves as former sex slaves, only 27 are still alive in the ROK.