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| National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang looks pensive at his office in the National Assembly, Nov. 12, during a meeting with the floor leaders of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the main opposition Liberty Korea Party and the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun |
By Jung Da-min
Preparatory work is underway to try and arrange a one-on-one meeting between President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the 6th China-Japan-South Korea Trilateral Summit to be held in Sichuan, China, next month. The moves come after Seoul decided to conditionally renew an intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo.
National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang is at the forefront after he proposed a bill to be presented to the National Assembly to articulate a possible compromise deal to close a compensation issue on surviving South Korean victims of forced labor during Japan's occupation of the peninsula.
While some lawmakers have expressed support for Moon's bill, claiming it was needed to establish a "future-oriented" relationship between the two countries, local civic groups, however, have staged protests calling it "anti-human" and "a-historical." The Japanese prime minister has reportedly expressed his support for the proposed bill, according to some media reports.
The bill Moon discussed at the Assembly with ten supportive lawmakers, Wednesday, proposes enshrining in Korean law the setting up of a compensation fund from contributions by the two governments and companies in the two countries, including not only those with shared responsibility, but others not directly related through "voluntary participation." Ordinary citizens can also donate to the fund.
Specifically, Moon's bill includes taking over the remainder of the 6 billion won ($5.8 million) Japan provided for the creation of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation set up to compensate victims of Japan's sexual slavery before and during World War II.
"Lawmakers have submitted many ideas to resolve the wartime forced labor issue. After carefully analyzing them, I will come up with a comprehensive and creative bill," Moon said.
The bill is said to be modeled after Germany's Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future, established in 2000 to compensate "former forced laborers and those affected by other injustices from the National Socialist period."
But civic groups have strongly condemned it saying the bill it does not involve measures to implement South Korean Supreme Court rulings that ordered Japanese companies to compensate surviving South Korean victims forced to work for them during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation. They called on Moon to abandon the bill.
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| Civic group leaders and members hold a joint press conference in front of the main gate of the National Assembly, Nov. 27, to protest National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang's compromise bill on the issue of forced labor during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun |
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| Phrases on the signs held by protesters read: "We oppose the 'one plus one plus alpha Moon Hee-sang bill' where the Japanese government does nothing," and "We oppose the Moon Hee-sang bill that indulges the Japanese government." Korea Times photo by Jung Da-min |
"The bill is slightly better than the Japanese government's previous demand that South Korea should follow international law, and scrap the Supreme Court's rulings, but this is absolutely not about implementing the rulings," said Lim Jae-sung, during a joint press conference by the civic groups in front of the National Assembly, Wednesday.
"To make the compensation irrelevant to the implementation of the rulings, the deal proposes to mix funds from multiple sources. They include funds from South Korean companies and citizens and even some Japanese companies not directly related to this issue, making it hard to clarify who is responsible."
Also among civic group leaders speaking at the press conference was Lee Na-young, a member of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan board of directors. Lee said the framework of Moon's bill was "fundamentally" wrong as it excluded calling for an acknowledgement and apology from the Japanese government over the forced labor and sexual slavery issues as well as the matter of legal compensation.
Noting that the receivers of compensations in the "new" compromise deal include not just victims of forced labor but also those of sexual slavery, she condemned the government for "trying to solve historical issues derived from different sectors at once through money, adding that "establishing such a South Korean law would give a permanent free pass to Japan."
"Moon's deal proposes establishing a human rights foundation as the operator of the fund. While it is similar to the German Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future, their characteristics are completely different," Lee said. "The German foundation was operated with funding from the German government which was the perpetrator. But the human rights foundation that would operate the fund in Moon's bill consists of South Korean and Japanese companies, while the South Korean government would cover the operating expenses for the foundation."
The civic group leaders called for President Moon Jae-in's administration not to repeat the same mistakes made during the previous government under jailed President Park Geun-hye, who was strongly criticized for ignoring victims' opinions when making an agreement with Japan over the "comfort women" issue.
