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BFF-27
SKOREA-JAPAN-HISTORY-DIPLOMACY
Seoul cancels permit for new Japanese embassy building
SEOUL, April 10, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Authorities in Seoul have cancelled the
permit for a new Japanese embassy building citing construction delays, local
officials said Wednesday, with relations between South Korea and Tokyo
strained by historical disputes.
The neighbours are both democracies, market economies and US allies faced
with an increasingly assertive China and the long-running threat of nuclear-
armed North Korea.
But their own ties have remained icy for years due to bitter rows stemming
from Japan’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, with
forced labour and wartime sex slavery key examples.
A statue of a “comfort woman” symbolising the Korean women forced to work
in Japanese military brothels mostly during World War II stands across the
road from the embassy plot.
Since 1992 campaigners have held weekly rallies at the site to demand a
“full, heartfelt apology” for wartime sex slavery from Tokyo.
The 1,382th such gathering took place Wednesday, with activists
surrounding the statue.
The previous embassy building was demolished some years ago, with staff
moving into offices in the neighbouring high-rises, and the plot is now a
patch of bare earth behind a high wall, vines growing through the surrounding
barbed wire.
City authorities gave permission for a new six-storey building in 2015,
the year Seoul and Tokyo signed a controversial deal to settle the wartime
sex slavery issue.
But construction — which under South Korean law must start within a year
of a permit being received — was repeatedly delayed.
Japan argues that the “comfort women” statue is against the 2015 bilateral
agreement, under which Tokyo offered an apology and a one-billion yen
payment.
But South Korean President Moon Jae-in said last year that the deal had
been signed by his ousted predecessor Park Geun-hye without consulting the
Korean victims and disbanded a foundation set up with the Japanese funds.
An official at the Jongno Ward Office in Seoul said: “We had a meeting
with Japanese officials in February, and they said they will accept the
revocation of the permit as they cannot start the construction work due to
circumstances in their home country.”
The dovish Moon — who has brokered talks between Washington and Pyongyang
— has stressed the struggle against Japan is at the heart of national
identity in both Koreas.
This year marks the 100th anniversaries of the March 1 Independence
Movement and the foundation of the Korean provisional government, and South
Korea is pulling out the stops to commemorate them both.
The centre of the capital is currently festooned with large government-
produced posters of heroes of the fight for independence.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1203 hrs