UPDATE - Tensions flare on anniversary of SKorea-Japan deal

UPDATES THROUGHOUT

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL (AA) - South Korean police surrounded dozens of protesters holding a sit-in demonstration in Busan Wednesday, on the first anniversary of an agreement to compensate victims of Japan’s twentieth century sexual slavery.

Up to 150 activists tried to install a statue of a young girl outside the southeastern city’s Japanese consulate, according to local media, emulating a similar monument to so-called comfort women across from Tokyo’s embassy in Seoul.

Officers were able to prevent the effort before around 30 demonstrators began a sit-in protest, reported Yonhap News Agency.

A college student was detained during the confrontation, with local officials rejecting the one-ton statue on the grounds of obstruction.

Thousands of Korean women were enslaved during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.

Last year’s deal saw Tokyo promise to pay one billion yen ($8.5 million) through a foundation to support now elderly surviving victims, just 39 of whom are registered with the government.

Opposition lawmakers, civic groups and some ex-“comfort women” rejected the agreement as insufficient and lacking legal responsibility.

There have been persistent reports too that Seoul may have been open to Tokyo’s desire to remove the statue outside its mission in the South Korean capital.

Still, the South’s Park Geun-hye administration celebrated the pact as a breakthrough following years of pressure on Japan, including from United States President Barack Obama who described Tokyo’s past abuse of women as “egregious”.

But the deal has been called into further question of late as a result of President Park’s impeachment Dec. 9.

A separate Park policy -- the introduction of state-published history textbooks -- was postponed this week, for example.

South Korea’s protest culture has also been particularly strong as millions of people have taken to the streets in recent weeks to rally against the president.