Former Foreign Security Chief Cheon Young-woo Criticizes Justice Network in Japanese Media Interview: "Profit-Seeking Organization"

Cheon Young-woo, Chairman of the Korea Peninsula Future Forum.

[Asia Economy International Desk Reporter] Cheon Young-woo, chairman of the Korea Future Forum and former Senior Secretary for Foreign Affairs and National Security at the Blue House under the Lee Myung-bak administration, has sparked controversy by criticizing the Justice and Memory Foundation in an interview with Japanese media.

In the interview published in the December 24 edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun, Chairman Cheon revealed that he had contacted the Justice and Memory Foundation during his tenure at the Blue House to discuss solutions to the comfort women issue, and sharply criticized the organization as "a group pursuing its own interests rather than the comfort women (victims)."

Chairman Cheon was responsible for negotiations with Japan to resolve the comfort women victim issue during his time as Senior Secretary for Foreign Affairs and National Security.

According to the interview, at the Korea-Japan summit held in Kyoto in December 2011, then-President Lee urged former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to resolve the comfort women issue. The following spring, Tsuyoshi Saito, then Chief Cabinet Secretary, visited South Korea and met with Chairman Cheon, who was Senior Secretary for Foreign Affairs and National Security at the time.

The main point of the Japanese proposal, referred to as the "Saito Plan," was that the Japanese ambassador to South Korea would meet the comfort women victims directly to deliver an apology letter from the Japanese Prime Minister and compensation funded by the Japanese national budget.

Chairman Cheon stated that he invited five to six comfort women victims to hear their opinions on the Saito Plan. He then explained the Japanese proposal to Yoon Mi-hyang, then chairwoman of the Justice and Memory Foundation (and elected member of the Democratic Party of Korea).

Recalling the meeting, Chairman Cheon said, "I thought Yoon would welcome the Japanese proposal, but she was embarrassed," and added, "I had believed she purely represented the interests of the comfort women victims, but I clearly realized then that their interests differed."

Chairman Cheon also criticized the current government regarding the Justice and Memory Foundation. He said about the 2015 Korea-Japan comfort women agreement under the Park Geun-hye administration being nullified by the Moon Jae-in government, "The Moon administration mistook the Justice and Memory Foundation for the victim rather than the comfort women themselves, which was a major problem," and added, "The victim-centered approach claimed by the Moon government was actually Justice and Memory Foundation-centered."

Chairman Cheon served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was Senior Secretary for Foreign Affairs and National Security at the Blue House from 2010 to 2013 under the Lee Myung-bak administration. Since June 2013, he has been serving as chairman of the Korea Future Forum.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.