hankyoreh

Minister of Gender Equality and Family Chung Hyun-back talks with former comfort woman Kim Kun-ja during a visit to the House of Sharing in Gwangju

The South Korean government will make a decision in late August on a future direction that includes potentially dissolving the Truth and Healing Foundation founded according to the agreement reached by the South Korean and Japanese governments on the Japanese military comfort women issue on Dec. 28, 2015. The next question is what will become of the foundation, the dissolution of which has been predicted since President Moon Jae-in took office.

“A review team [consisting of seven auditing and accounting officials from the ministry] has already been set up and is reviewing and assessing the Truth and Healing Foundation’s activities,” said Minister of Gender Equality and Family Chung Hyun-back in a July 27 meeting with reporters.

“We will announce the future direction of the foundation’s operation once the assessment is complete late next month,” Chung added.

In a press release the same day, the foundation said it had officially processed the resignation of chairperson Kim Tae-hyeon, who notified the board of directions of her intent to leave on July 19. On her reasons for leaving, Kim said it would be “best to announce my resignation now that we have completed the primary efforts for individual [comfort women] victims.”

Founded in July 2016 with a one-billion yen (US$9 million) contribution from the Japanese government, the Truth and Healing Foundation is a corporation registered with and overseen by MOGEF. Previously, it has been involved in an effort in which payments of 20 million to 100 million won (US$17,900-89,500) each have been offered to former comfort women. But the effort has been dogged by controversy, with some alleging that cash payments were distributed without the actual women’s consent. The MOGEF’s foundation review team plans to examine the status of disbursements and the payment recipient selection process for possible problems. According to its founding constitution, the foundation may be dissolved with the approval of two-thirds or more of registered directors and the Minister of Gender Equality and Family. At the same time, the process also requires the minister to hold discussions with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Dissolving the foundation would require a determination at the administration level, since it would mean effectively cancelling the Dec. 28 agreement. Regarding the foundation’s fate, Chung said on July 27 that she would be “cooperating with the Foreign Ministry.”

Chung also stressed her intent to establish a comfort women museum and women’s history museum during her term as minister.

“Rather than approaching the comfort women issue from a purely nationalist perspective, I plan to create a mecca for people remembering war and violence against women from a global perspective,” she said.

By Park Ki-yong and Kim Mee-hyang, staff reporters

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]