Japan's Future Dialogue For Comfort Women Atonement May Be A Permanently Closed Subject

Korean Comfort Women are a group of sexual slaves from WWll. They've alleged to have been mobilized and operated under Japanese authority, and Japan has, to at least some extent, confirmed and apologized. It's been a long-standing point of contention between South Korea and Japan.

Following months of speculation on whether a revision of the December 2015 agreement between Japan and South Korea regarding the Korean Comfort Women would be demanded by Seoul, Kang Kyung-wha, South Korean Foreign Minster, announced in January that South Korea would not seek any renegotiations.

President Moon Jae-in has been quite critical of the two-year old agreement formed under his predecessor, Park Geun-hye, following the findings of a task force he'd appointed to investigate the deal.

The independent task force concluded that the agreement was flawed, particularly in that the South Korean government failed to conduct hearings with the survivors to get Comfort Women testimonies, and could therefore not adequately resolve the issue.

Following the findings being announced in a press conference, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono immediately countered with a statement declaring the relationship between Japan and South Korea would be "unmanageable" if there was any attempt to change the previous deal.

However, 2015 wasn't the first attempt to resolve the South Korean Comfort Women issue:

• In 1993, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary openly acknowledged the Imperial Japanese Army's role in Comfort Women stations.
• In 1995, Japan's Prime Minister issued an apology for wartime atrocities committed by Japan.
• The Asian Women's Fund was created, providing financial and health care compensation for the women through private funding.

Acknowledgment and apologies weren't enough, and the Asian Women's fund wasn't received well either, with Seoul and the victims regarding the fund as an unofficial entity due to its private funding. Instead, supporters wanted a more official compensation scheme directly from the Japanese government to atone for the plight and Comfort Women stories.

In the following years, the tension continued to rise as civic groups from South Korea and Australia to the U.S. and Europe began erecting statues to represent and support the women. In 2011, a Comfort Woman statue was erected in Seoul in front of Japan's embassy.

Enter 2015 and the agreement that many hung their hopes would finally end the tension between the Japanese and the South Korean governments over this issue and allow the two countries to finally unite over common issues, such as North Korea's endless provocations. Tokyo and Seoul both touted that the agreement, which involved Japan donating a lump sum to a Comfort foundation established by the South Korean government, was final, resolute, and irreversible.

Moon's administration questioning the 2015 agreement through an investigation created months of speculation as to whether Japan and North Korea's relationship would be permanently shattered. Moon's January statement ensured that South Korea would not revisit the agreement. However, the damage from the speculation might've forever closed an existing gap in the 2015 agreement.

The gap left a window open for potential future dialogue between the two on additional measures for the survivors. A stipulation in the agreement was that the Japan and ROK could collaboratively carry out future projects for healing psychological wounds and recovering the honor and dignity of the Comfort Women.

Since the most recent dialogue and possible call to action was to replace/repeal verses improve the implementation of the agreement, Kono's "no change" statement on January 9 might now be absolute in the future, regardless of the context of the dialogue.

I'm Ariyan Usman, Ceo of Drak Blue Marketing based in UK