it's been more than four months since seouland tokyo reached a landmark agreement on japan's wartime sex slavery.while time is ticking for the few elderly women who are still alive,... seoul says there'svisible progress in the implementation of the deal.as our kwon soa reports... a newly established foundation will offer financial compensationto korean victims, both the living and the dead, of japan's enforced sex slavery leadingup to and during world war ii. one of the main points of the landmark dealreached on december 28th last year... between south korea and japan... on the so-called"comfort women" issue, was to establish a foundation run by the south korean government,...through which the japanese government would
compensate the victims of the japanese military'swartime sexual slavery program. now, more than fourth months later,... seoul'sforeign ministry has laid out a time frame for that part of the deal. "if possible, we are aiming for the foundationto be established within the first half of this year,... and for that we are pushingto launch a prepatory committee within this month." a ministry official told reporters tuesday...the ministry's northeast asia chief,... an official from the ministry of gender equalityand family... and others recently visited individual victims across the country... toexplain the implementation of the deal.
among the 29 individuals,... five of whomwere consulted over the phone,... 26 were said to have been positive about the creationof the foundation. but the number excludes the women who liveat shelters for comfort women,... who have generally been the most negative about thedeal. according to the official, the one billionjapanese yen, or roughly 9 million u.s. dollars, provided as compensation will be reservedfor the surviving victims and those who have died.the funds won't be used to construct a building for the foundation... and the administrativecosts will be kept as low as possible. "but, the government will still have to meetwith all of the 44 comfort women alive today,...
to listen to their own wishes,... as that'swhat counts the most. kwon soa, arirang news."
