UPDATE - SKorean interim leader defends ‘comfort women’ deal

UPDATES THROUGHOUT

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL (AA) - South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn continued his tumultuous period as temporary president Tuesday by urging all parties not to inflame an already tense relationship with Japan.

Tokyo’s South Korea-based ambassador and consul general returned home a day earlier in protest against a new monument remembering thousands of colonial era victims of Japanese sexual slavery.

The installation of the girl statue by activists outside Japan’s Busan mission late last month was initially blocked but then permitted by the local district government -- Tokyo has also been upset by a similar memorial erected in 2011 across from its embassy in Seoul.

While the Japanese government views the “comfort women” issue as finally resolved by a 2015 compensation agreement worth 1 billion yen ($8.7 million) to dozens of surviving “comfort women”, some elderly victims have been joined by politicians and civic groups in arguing that Tokyo has failed to act sincerely and with a legal basis.

Local historians estimate up to 200,000 women from across Asia were forced to work in military brothels before and during World War II -- many of them were drafted into sexual servitude from Japanese-occupied Korea.

With Seoul-Tokyo ties reaching their lowest point since former President Lee Myung-bak visited disputed islets in 2012, Hwang called during a Cabinet meeting for the “comfort women” agreement to be respected, according to local news agency Yonhap.

His appeal came as prominent voices have suggested the deal might not be held in high regard by a new administration after the South holds an election this year to choose a successor to impeached President Park Geun-hye.

The Democratic Party’s Moon Jae-in, a frontrunner in presidential polls, has described the agreement as “the most notable case of evil diplomacy”.

Hwang’s comments also followed the death of a Buddhist monk who set himself on fire during Saturday’s latest mass anti-government rally in Seoul -- the 64-year-old was pronounced dead two days later having left a memo demanding the nullification of the “comfort women” deal.

“Please don’t make my death worthless,” he wrote, while echoing wider calls for the president to bear responsibility for the country’s ongoing power abuse scandal.