Japan finds S. Korean diplomat's comfort women remark "unacceptable"
이 글자크기로 변경됩니다.
(예시) 가장 빠른 뉴스가 있고 다양한 정보, 쌍방향 소통이 숨쉬는 다음뉴스를 만나보세요. 다음뉴스는 국내외 주요이슈와 실시간 속보, 문화생활 및 다양한 분야의 뉴스를 입체적으로 전달하고 있습니다.
The Japanese government has taken issue with a South Korean government spokesperson’s remark that the comfort women issue is a “universal human rights issue” that people should work together to resolve. Tokyo described the remark as “unacceptable,” citing a comfort women agreement concluded with Seoul in December 2015.
“Japan cannot accept this kind of remark in light of the comfort women agreement that we reached with South Korea [in December 2015], which confirmed that the comfort women issue has been finally and irreversibly resolved,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said during a daily press briefing on the morning of Feb. 24.
Kato was referring to remarks made by South Korea’s Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon during a keynote address at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council, which was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on Feb. 23.
Kato said that Kazuyuki Yamazaki, Japan’s ambassador to international organizations in Geneva, had conveyed these thoughts to his South Korean counterpart and that he would express Japan’s position when the council opens up the floor for responses.
In earlier remarks, Choi mentioned sexual violence in regions of conflict as an “urgent” human rights concern that humankind needed to work together to combat.
“The current and future generations need to learn an invaluable lesson from the painful experience of the so-called ‘comfort women’ victims during the Second World War,” he stressed, adding that the “comfort women tragedy needs to be approached as a universal human rights issue.”
Choi went on to discuss South Korea’s efforts to heal the trauma suffered by the comfort women survivors but did not explicitly mention or denounce Japan.
While the South Korean and Japanese governments agreed to “refrain from condemning or criticizing one another on this issue before the UN or international community” in their comfort women agreement on Dec. 28, 2015, the two sides have never agreed to not broach the topic at all.
But with Kato insisting that Japan would “assert [its] right to respond and argue [its] position,” a heated war of words appears likely to unfold before the UN Human Rights Council between the South Korean and Japanese representatives.
By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter
Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
Copyright © 한겨레. All rights reserved. 무단 전재, 재배포 및 크롤링 금지.
- 헌재 “사실적시 명예훼손, 표현 자유 침해 아니다”…합헌 결정
- 배우 이영애, 이재웅 전 대표가 후원한 국회의원은?
- ‘시보 떡’ 대신 ‘새내기 케이크’…공직사회 갑질 문화 사라진다
- 택배노조 “한진택배, 파업지역 집하금지 부당”…본사 점거 농성
- [한채윤의 비온 뒤 무지개] 우리의 목숨은 혐오보다 강하다
- 질병청 “특정인을 1호 접종자로 두지 않는다”…동시다발 접종
- 국토부는 가덕도 신공항에 왜 이렇게 ‘진심’인 걸까
- [단독] 황희 장관 면담한 고 최숙현 동료들 “달라진 것 없어” 토로
- [포토] 재활용 어려운 화장품 용기, ‘어느 분류통에?’
- [아하 스포츠] ‘35번 한유섬’ 아시나요…이름 바꾸니 야구도 바뀌네