Japan sets up fund for South Korean ‘comfort women’ forced to work in wartime brothels

South Korea and Japan have agreed to resolve the issue of ‘comfort women’, as those who were forced to work in Japan’s wartime brothels were euphemistically known. The issue has long plagued ties between the neighbours.

The foreign ministers of the two countries said, after a meeting in Seoul, that the ‘comfort women’ issue would be “finally and irreversibly resolved”, if all conditions were met.

The agreement will be welcomed by the United States, which has been keen for improved relations between its two major Asian allies, given an increasingly assertive China and an unpredictable North Korea.