Written by Lisa Murimi
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said he intends to honour existing agreements with Japan over its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, including the contentious 2015 pact on “comfort women,” despite deep opposition at home.
In an interview with Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun published Thursday ahead of his Tokyo summit with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Lee said overturning the agreement would be “undesirable” even though it remains “very difficult to accept” for many South Koreans.
“For South Korean people, that agreement by the previous administration is very difficult to accept, but it is a promise as a nation, so it is undesirable to overturn it,” Lee said.
Under the 2015 deal, Japan issued a formal apology and contributed 1 billion yen ($6.8 million) to a fund supporting surviving victims of wartime sexual slavery. Both governments agreed the issue would be “irreversibly resolved” if obligations were fulfilled. Still, many victims and civic groups have rejected the settlement, demanding further accountability from Tokyo.
Lee described the plight of surviving victims as a “heartbreaking issue” and urged Japan to continue engaging with them, while stressing that Tokyo was a “very important country.” He said his administration seeks to deepen economic and security ties with Japan and strengthen trilateral cooperation with the United States.
Lee will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington following his Tokyo talks, where security issues, particularly North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, will be high on the agenda.
He outlined a phased approach toward dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal: an initial freeze on weapons and missiles, followed by reductions, and ultimately full denuclearisation. “(Our) policy direction is the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” Lee said.
North Korea, however, has dismissed Lee’s overtures as “gibberish” and a “pipedream.”
