S Korean 'comfort women' protest against Japan deal

South Korean women, forced into wartime sexual slavery, and their supporters have staged a fresh protest rally against an agreement to settle the issue with Japan.

On Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to denounce the deal with Japan over the so-called "comfort women" of South Korea used as sex slaves during World War II.

Among the demonstrators were some of the former comfort women who called the accord “humiliating."

The latest rally come two days after Japan and South Korea finally inked a landmark deal over the controversial issue of women sex slaves during World War II, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offering an apology and promising one-billion-yen ($8.3-million) payment for the Korean victims.

Japan said the payment was aimed at "restoring the women's dignity" but was not official compensation.

A statement by both countries' foreign ministers on Monday said Abe “expresses anew his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women,” using the common term for Korean and other Asian women who, according to historians, were forcefully sent to frontlines to offer sex to Japanese soldiers.

However, the agreement has been met with angry reaction from activists. 

The protesters have been demanding what they called a sincere apology from Japan and formal compensation and reparations for victims. 

Many expect the Japanese premier to issue a written statement to the 46 surviving former Korean sex slaves, now in their 80s and 90s, although it was not clear whether Abe would be willing to take that measure. 

Reacting to the deal, Lee Yong-su, 88 one of the Comfort women, said that she and fellow survivors were not consulted by officials before the agreement was reached, and that the Seoul government cannot be trusted.

Lee along her fellow have also vowed to continue to fight to the end. 

"We will continue to fight to make Japan take formal, legal responsibility and apology so that victims who have already perished will have justice," Lee noted.

Weekly rallies have been held outside the embassy since 1992 over the issue. 

Japan occupied large parts of China and the Korean Peninsula during World War II.

South Korea’s relations with Japan have long been strained over memories of the brutal wartime history.

Senior authorities in Seoul emphasize that Tokyo has yet to properly atone for its past actions.

Japan and South Korea are also at odds over sovereignty on a pair of islands called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese in the Sea of Japan.

Seoul, which controls the islands since the end of the Japanese colonial rule after World War II, considers Japan’s claims as stemming from its colonial past.

Bilateral ties, however, have warmed since Premier Abe met South Korean President Park Geun-hye last month in Seoul. 

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