Korea set to take first step to implement deal with Japan on sex slaves

South Korea will officially start work to implement a landmark agreement forged with Japan late last year to compensate South Korean women sexually enslaved by Japanese soldiers during World War II, the government said Monday.

The government will launch a steering committee on Tuesday in the run-up to the official establishment next month of a foundation aimed at compensating the South Korean women who were forced to serve in frontline brothels for the imperialist Japanese army during the war.

The move would be the first official step to implement the agreement reached between the South Korean and Japanese governments to end decades-old disputes over the wartime atrocities.

In the agreement, Japan agreed to inject 1 billion yen ($8.98 million) into the foundation as part of compensation measures.

"The foundation preparations committee will hold its first meeting in the morning of May 31 in the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in Seoul," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said in their joint statement.

The committee plans to elect a chairman during the Tuesday meeting, with Kim Tae-hyun, an honorary female professor at Sungshin Women's University, likely to be the most favored candidate, according to sources.

The preparation committee would be staffed with slightly more than 10 members including officials from the foreign and gender equality ministries, the sources said.

The forthcoming committee will be tasked with mapping out the envisioned foundation which may come into being about a month later, according to the sources.

Kim is likely to head the foundation as well, the sources also added. 

Historians say tens of thousands of South Korean women had been forced into sexual slavery during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.

Currently, there now remain only 43 out of 238 government-registered former sex slaves, euphemistically called 'comfort women.' (Yonhap)