The South Korean government has announced it will shut down a controversial foundation that was created by the previous Park Geun-hye administration and Japan to support the Korean victims of Tokyo's wartime system of sex slavery.<br />The move has left Seoul and Tokyo at an even deeper impasse over the so-called "comfort women" issue.<br />Our Park Hee-jun reports. South Korea's decision to terminate a so-called "comfort women" foundation that was established to compensate the victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery has sparked a furious reaction in Tokyo.<br />Seoul's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which oversees the now-defunct Japanese-funded Reconciliation and Healing Foundation,... announced on Wednesday that the government will dissolve the foundation.<br />It was controversial ever since its launch in 2015 under the previous Park Geun-hye administration,... for failing to reflect the interests of the victims and for being unaccompanied by an official apology from Japan.<br /><br />Seoul's announcement sparked an immediate response from Japan.<br />Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe claimed the 2015 agreement was a "final and irreversible" settlement.<br />Calling for South Korea to act responsibly,... he warned that bilateral relations cannot be sustained unless international promises are kept.<br />But Seoul's foreign ministry says the government is not seeking to void or renegotiate the deal.<br />It argued an agreement that does not reflect the victims' interests cannot be a real solution,... and called on Tokyo to come up with a more appropriate plan to restore the honor and dignity of the victims.<br />The two sides are already at odds over the recent ruling by South Korea's Supreme Court that a major Japanese steelmaker should compensate South Koreans for forced labor during Japan's colonial rule.<br />Park Hee-jun, Arirang News. <br />
