President Park Geun-hye received a telephone call from Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe on December 29.
They exchanged views on the just-concluded negotiations on the issue of comfort women, who were forced to work as sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War II.
Prime Minister Abe, in his capacity as Minister for the Comprehensive Administration of the Cabinet, expressed heartfelt apologies and remorse to all those who suffered immeasurable pain and unbearable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.
Prime Minister Abe, then, explained that programs to help bring back honor and dignity to the comfort women victims and heal their heartache would be carried out one by one. He also confirmed that the issue of comfort women would be finally and irreversibly resolved through the agreement reached this time.
President Park remarked that this agreement should be made into an invaluable opportunity to restore the honor and dignity of the comfort women victims and mend the wounds rankling in their hearts.
Noting the difficult process the two governments went through to reach a deal, the President expressed the hope that the two countries would continue to consult closely with each other to build trust and reinvent their relationship based on what was agreed upon this time.
