hankyoreh

The South Korean government has decided to establish a monument for the “comfort women” at the Independence Hall in Cheonan.

Minister of Gender Equality and Family Jang Ha-jin announced on August 8, “The government has consulted with the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs and the Independence Hall and the cost will be reflected in next year’s budget. We will discuss the design and materials with the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, which is pushing ahead with its own plans to construct a museum dealing with the subject of war and women’s rights.”

It has been reported that hundreds of thousands of women served during the war as “comfort women,” a euphemism for women forced by the Japanese military to serve as sex slaves. In June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution urging Japan to apologize for its role in wartime sex slavery, however, the Japanese government has declined to do so and continues to deny its involvement in the issue.

The design of the monument will be finished in 2008 and construction is scheduled to be completed by 2010. The ministry estimates that the monument will cost approximately 10 billion won (US$11 million).

In a separate move, the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan is going to push to build the monument on the site of Seodaemun Independence Park (formerly known as Seodaemun Prison). Kim Dong-hui, secretary-general of the council, said, “We welcome the government’s decision to construct a monument for comfort women, but it is against the initial purpose of the museum for women’s rights to enshrine comfort women and women who fought for national independence together in the same monument.”