Foreign students get busy plating food at the Korean Food Institute of Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul on Aug. 19, 2016. The students are participating in the institute’s program that teaches traditions in cooking Korean cuisine. (Photo provided by Sookmyung Women’s University) (Yonhap)
A competitor of the wakeboarding competition “2016 Wakeboard World Series” rides on the board high into the air on the Han River on Aug. 21, 2016. (Yonhap)
Volunteers are carrying boxes on Aug. 20, 2016, containing possessions by victims of a deadly ferry sinking to temporarily move them from a classroom of Danwon High School in Asan, south of Seoul, to the provincial office of education. In April 2014, the Sewol ferry sank in waters off the southern coast, leaving about 300 people dead. (Yonhap)
South Korean Army Chief of Staff Gen. Jang Jun-kyu (L) shakes hands with his visiting U.S. counterpart Mark Milley at the army’s Seoul office on Aug. 19, 2016. The two discussed the planned deployment of an advanced missile defense system, called “the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)” on South Korean soil. (Yonhap)
A sales clerk explains to a female customer about the functions of air conditioners at a home appliance shop in Seoul on Aug. 16, 2016. According to industry sources, the sales of air conditioners this year are expected to post an all-time high of 2.20 million units thanks to a month-long sweltering heat. (Yonhap)
South Korean women’s volleyball players pose for a photo after defeating Cameroon 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-20) in their last Pool A match at the 31st Summer Olympic Games at Maracanazinho in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 14, 2016. South Korea clinched the third seed in its group and advanced to the quarterfinals. (Yonhap)
This photo shows Lotte Skyhill Seongju Country Club in the namesake county, 296 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The club and its vicinity rapidly emerge as an alternative candidate site for the U.S. anti-missile system, called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), instead of an originally-planned site in the same county amid local residents’ vehement opposition to the deployment, citing health problems. Lotte Skyhill provided the photo. (Yonhap)
A child finds a private cozy spot to cool down from the blistering heat at a waterfall in Sogwipo, a city on South Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju, on Aug. 12, 2016. (Yonhap)
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) visits the home of Libba Patterson, whom he refers to as his “American mom,” in San Francisco, California, on Aug. 11, 2016. Patterson hosted teenager Ban at her home when he traveled to the United States in 1962 on a student visit program. Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, ends his 10 years as the U.N. chief at the end of this year. Standing behind them is Ban’s wife, Yoo Soon-taek. (Photo courtesy of the United Nations)
This would be just one more step to Japan and Korea putting the past behind them and hopefully moving forward to a more cooperative future:
This file photo shows a statue of a girl in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul which symbolizes the Korean women sexually enslaved at a young age by Japanese forces. (Yonhap)
Japan’s foreign minister pledged Friday to “swiftly” transfer funds to assist South Korean victims of the country’s colonial-era sexual enslavement, the foreign ministry here said, as the two neighbors ironed out the final details of a deal aimed at ending the decades-old feud over this painful issue.
Seoul’s top diplomat Yun Byung-se and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida held telephone talks earlier in the day before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the Japanese decision.
“Foreign Minister Kishida remarked that the Japanese government has decided to disburse the 1 billion yen (US$9.9 million) fund that will come from its government budget as soon as domestic procedures following the deal in December are finalized,” the foreign ministry here said in a statement.
The latest development came amid a delay in Japan’s transfer of the billion yen fund which the country committed to pay in a landmark deal reached with South Korea on Dec. 28 to put an end to the diplomatic feud over the so-called comfort women issue. [Yonhap]
