South Korea protests Japan’s review of ‘comfort women’ apology

South Korea summoned Japan’s envoy on Monday to protest against Tokyo’s review of a landmark 1993 apology to women, many Korean, forced to work as wartime sex slaves in Japanese military brothels, urging it to stop trying to whitewash history.

South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong told the Japanese Ambassador Bessho Koro that Tokyo was trying to undermine its own apology when the history behind the issue of “comfort women” was recognised internationally.

“Japan must understand that the more the Abe government tires to undermine the Kono statement, the more its credibility and international reputation will suffer,” Cho said.

“Comfort women” is the euphemism for women forced to serve in military brothels serving Japanese soldiers before and during the second world war.

South Korea has protested against the conclusion of a Japanese panel reviewing the 1993 statement named after then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono that the two countries had worked together on the sensitive wording of the apology.

It rejected the finding that South Korea was involved in the formulation of the apology, saying the document was a formal statement by the Japanese government and the facts behind the comfort women issue had never been up for discussion.