Consolation: On November 21, the day that the government decided to dissolve the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation, a participant of the 1,362nd Wednesday Demonstration to resolve the comfort women issue in the Japanese military touches the "Girl of Peace" statue in front of the former Japanese Embassy in Junghak-dong, Seoul. Yi Jun-heon

The government decided to dissolve the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation for the comfort women victims in the Japanese military, established with the 1 billion yen that Japan gave in the days of the Park Geun-hye government.

The foundation will shut down two years and four months after it was first launched. Relations between South Korea and Japan, which froze after the latest court ruling calling for Japanese companies to compensate South Korean victims of forced labor, are expected to cool down further.

On November 21, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced, "After discussions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the future of the foundation, we have decided to dissolve it. We will embark on legal procedures to shut down the foundation."

The gender ministry expects it to take a year to switch the status of the foundation to one up for liquidation and settle the foundation's assets and employees. The gender ministry will oversee the dissolution and cancel all authorities of the foundation by withdrawing the permit for the establishment of the foundation. All civilian directors on the foundation’s board resigned, and currently only two ex officio members of the eleven directors remain.

Choi Chang-haeng, director of the Women's and Youth Rights Promotion Bureau at the gender ministry said, "We will first notify the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation of the withdrawal of the permit for the establishment of the foundation and hold a hearing to listen to the foundation’s opinions. This will take about ten days, and after this process, we will begin legal procedures to dissolve the foundation."

As for the remaining funds of the foundation--about 5.8 billion won as of the end of October--the ministry announced it would draw up a reasonable plan for this along with the 10.3 billion won that the government set aside for gender-equality projects in July after collecting the opinions of comfort women victims and related organizations.

The Reconciliation and Healing Foundation launched in July 2016 according to an agreement that the South Korean government signed with the Japanese government in December 2015. The purpose of the foundation was to heal the wounds and restore the honor of the comfort women victims, and it was funded with the 1 billion yen paid by the Japanese government.

The comfort women victims, the bereaved families and our civic society had from the start demanded the dissolution of the foundation claiming that it was one based on an agreement that the victims had no part in. President Moon Jae-in said he would review the agreement with Japan and also reconsider the existence of the foundation after his inauguration. Last September, President Moon met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in New York and notified him of plans to dissolve the foundation, which showed the government's plans.

Kim Bok-dong (92), an elderly comfort women victim said, "It is a relief that the government has listened to the wishes of this old woman and will dissolve the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation."

This day, the Japanese foreign ministry summoned Lee Su-hoon, the South Korean ambassador to Japan, and protested the government decision. Prime Minister Abe said, "We hope that South Korea will respond responsibly as a member of the international community. The agreement three years ago was a final and irreversible solution."