The South Korean government has announced it will shut down a controversial foundation that was created by the previous Park Geun-hye administration and Japan to support the Korean victims of Tokyo's wartime system of sex slavery.
The move has left Seoul and Tokyo at an even deeper impasse over the so-called "comfort women" issue.
Our Park Hee-jun reports. South Korea's decision to terminate a so-called "comfort women" foundation that was established to compensate the victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery has sparked a furious reaction in Tokyo.
Seoul's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which oversees the now-defunct Japanese-funded Reconciliation and Healing Foundation,... announced on Wednesday that the government will dissolve the foundation.
It was controversial ever since its launch in 2015 under the previous Park Geun-hye administration,... for failing to reflect the interests of the victims and for being unaccompanied by an official apology from Japan.

Seoul's announcement sparked an immediate response from Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe claimed the 2015 agreement was a "final and irreversible" settlement.
Calling for South Korea to act responsibly,... he warned that bilateral relations cannot be sustained unless international promises are kept.
But Seoul's foreign ministry says the government is not seeking to void or renegotiate the deal.
It argued an agreement that does not reflect the victims' interests cannot be a real solution,... and called on Tokyo to come up with a more appropriate plan to restore the honor and dignity of the victims.
The two sides are already at odds over the recent ruling by South Korea's Supreme Court that a major Japanese steelmaker should compensate South Koreans for forced labor during Japan's colonial rule.
Park Hee-jun, Arirang News.