In the press conference on January 9, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said her government will not seek the renegotiation of the December 2015 agreement it reached with Japan regarding the comfort women issue. Her official announcement ended months of speculation on whether President Moon Jae-in, who has been openly critical of the agreement since he was a presidential candidate, would push for the revision or renegotiation of the deal that his predecessor Park Geun-hye reached two years ago.

The speculation has particularly intensified since December 27, 2017 when the Special Task Force, an independent investigative group appointed by Moon Jae-in to look into the 2015 deal, announced its findings. The Task Force concluded that the 2015 agreement was flawed, criticizing the South Korean government for (among other things) not conducting direct hearings with the “comfort women” survivors.

This article was originally published by The Diplomat on January 11, 2018. Read the full article here.