Roundup: S.Korea urges Japan to fulfill "comfort women" agreement amid disputes over statue

South Korea on Thursday urged Japan to fulfill an agreement, reached in last December to support wartime sex slavery victims, amid disputes in Japan over a statue standing in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul symbolizing the World War II victims.

Asked about Seoul's stance on calls from some of Japanese ruling party lawmakers to remove the "statue of girl," South Korea's foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuk told a press briefing that the Dec. 28 agreement between Seoul and Tokyo must be implemented and fulfilled.

The statue of girl is a barefoot bronze sculpture dressed in traditional Korean clothes, erected in 2011 by the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, a local civic group advocating the "comfort women" victims.

Since then, it has stood on a sidewalk in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul to symbolize the "comfort women," a euphemism for Korean women coerced into sexual servitude in military brothels for Japan's army before and during the World War II.

The Korean peninsula had been colonized by the Imperial Japan between 1910 and 1945.

According to historians, as many as 200,000 women, mostly from the Korean peninsula as well as from China and Southeast Asian nations, fell victim to Japan's sex enslavement during the devastating war. Among 238 South Koreans who identified themselves as former sex slaves, only 44 are alive.

Some of nationalistic Japanese politicians have claimed the statue should be taken down as it reminds the world of Japan's past brutalities, which they want to erase from their official history.

About 20 lawmakers from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Wednesday held a meeting in Tokyo, insisting that Japan should not provide 1 billion yen (9 million U.S. dollars) unless the statue of girl is removed.

Under the Dec. 28 agreement reached between foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan to end their longstanding disputes over the comfort women issue, Japan promised to offer 1 billion yen from government coffers to help establish a foundation in Seoul for the South Korean victims.

A preparatory committee to set up the foundation was launched earlier this week, with an aim to launch the comfort women support foundation within this month.

The agreement didn't require Seoul to remove the statue, only saying that South Korea recognizes Japan's concerns about the statue and plans to discuss the issue with the victims and relevant civic groups. Seoul has maintained a position that the privately funded statue cannot be forcibly removed by the government.

The sex slavery victims and their supporters denounced the Seoul-Tokyo agreement during their regular Wednesday rally, refusing to receive any funds from the Japanese government and calling for sincere apology and compensation for the wartime atrocities. The rally has been held every Wednesday for over 20 years in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

The head of the civic group, which led the statue erection with donations from citizens, said during the rally on Wednesday that the victims and their supporters had never demanded financial assistance from the Japanese government.

One of the living South Korean victims said that she would never receive such money from the Japanese government, calling for Japan to restore their honor by acknowledging its legal responsibility for the forcible recruitment of comfort women victims.

Japan has claimed that its government hasn't been involved in the forcible recruitment, with some of Japanese nationalists calling the victims "prostitutes." Enditem