Frederick Carriere on Controversial ‘Comfort Women’ Statues

Korean activists and Japanese officials are at odds over the placement of ‘Comfort Statues’ that were recently erected near Japanese missions in South Korea. The statues, which symbolize the Korean victims of Japanese wartime sex slaves in the 1940s, have sparked debate among the countries, which Maxwell political science professor and Korean Peninsula expert Frederick Carriere says can be worked out.

“My view is that an agreement should initially be worked out between the aggrieved parties and then later endorsed and implemented by the governments,” he said. “It seems to me that agreement reached last year took the reverse approach and this is a major reason it has not survived politically.”