(EPA/Seoul Metropolitan Government handout)SEOUL - South Korea's new gender equality and family minister said Monday a plan has been formed to establish a museum in Seoul to commemorate former Korean women forced into Japanese wartime brothels. Speaking to reporters during the visit to the facility in Gwangju, on the outskirts of the South Korean capital, Chung said the so-called "comfort women" issue is "no longer an issue between South Korea and Japan but an international one." The ministry ceased to be involved in the initiative pushing for the documents to be listed by Unesco after a 2015 deal struck between Japan and South Korea to settle the comfort women issue "finally and irreversibly." In addition to the photos, Korean researchers released an 18-second clip believed to be the first film taken of the women, along with other archives. In her inauguration speech last Friday, Chung said a foundation set up by the South Korean government to use Japanese funding to support the ageing former comfort women will be subject to a complete review.

Source: Bangkok Post July 10, 2017 18:56 UTC