of society and our economy. ♪ >> i'm here at the headlines here on al jazeera. novak djokovic is facing deportation from australia after his entry visa was canceled. he is appealing the decision. djokovic says he had earlier gotten an exemption to play in the us trillion open after he refused to give proof of covid-19 vaccination. australia's prime minister insists no exemption was in place. >> rules are rules, and there

are no special classes. rules are rules -- that is what i said to you yesterday. that is the policy of the government. particularly in relation to the pandemic, it ensures we have one of the lowest death rates from cobra in the world. we were one of the first countries to move shutting our borders -- it ensures we have one of the lowest death rates from covid in the world. >> we have more from australia's sunshine coast. >> yesterday, when he announced he was coming to participate and had received this travel exemption and unvaccinated status, this is when the australians -- there was widespread anger and furor about them accusing the governor of giving special treatment. the health minister also here in australia confirmed the visa has been canceled, following an overview of the exemption

provided by the victorian government, so that is the development. >> a u.s. president's top medical advisor is urging people to continue taking precautions against coronavirus. anthony fauci warned against complacency despite indications the omicron variant may not be as severe. a russian-let alliance says it will send peacekeepers to kazakhstan after the president asked for help to quell protests. several security officers have been killed in four days of unrest. there's your headlines. news continues in al jazeera after "inside story." ♪

>> they are called the comfort women, south koreans forced to provide sexual services to japanese soldiers before and during the second world war. they want compensation, but after so many decades, will they get it? and how is this affecting ties between tokyo and seoul? this is "inside story." south koreans are marking 30 years since they began protests against japan's wartime sex slavery scandal. they are demanding a sincere apology and compensation with thousands of women who were victims of sex trafficking. seoul and tokyo agreed to pay almost $9 million, but last

year, a south korean court and the unification ministry concluded that was not enough, increasing tensions between the nations. the japanese prime minister who was foreign minister when the deal was done last month urged south korea to abide by the agreement, saying that at least the promise between states must be kept or any discussion from now on will be meaningless. the term "comfort women" refers to a system of sexual slavery that was created and controlled by the imperial japanese government between 1932 and 1945. it is the largest case of government-sponsored human trafficking and sexual slavery in modern history. based on the 2015 accord, japan paid 8.7 million dollars. the money was distributed through a foundation to former victims of the families -- former victims and the families of those who have since died. it was dissolved when the prime minister decided the deal failed

to properly reflect the victim'' wishes. last year, a south korean court ordered the japanese government to pay further damages to former comfort women. japan protested and south korea's unification ministry urged japan to do more to help victims and heal their wounds. let's bring in our guests. professor craig mark, a professor of international studies, and the publisher of an independent media outlet. welcome to the program. first, we talked to asia programs coordinator and humanitarian specialist at the global network of women peace builders. she joins us from new york. thank you very much for joining us. you were the lead researcher

into a very comprehensive report looking into comfort-related sexual slavery. i want to talk first about comfort women. it is a euphemism and a very poor euphemism because the actual experience of what these women went through was horrific, wasn't it? >> yes, absolutely. the comfort women are victims of the most well-known occurrence of military sexual slavery. hundreds of thousands of korean, taiwanese, chinese, filipino, and dutch women, among others in the asia-pacific, were subjected to slavery at the hands of the japanese imperial army than dyer and exar occupied territories as part of a widespread military war crimes system, and perhaps the most shocking and horrifying thing about this history of conflict-related sexual slavery is how systematized it was and how deeply ingrained into the

japanese military wartime strategy it was. the comfort women -- there were hundreds of thousands of them -- have yet to receive justice and have adequate survivor-centered relief and recovery, so they are still waiting for their horrifying experiences to be truly acknowledged and to be adequately receiving justice. >> what is the impact of that sort of trauma -- what does it do long-term? i was reading some of the stories of some of these women, you know, taken against their will, subjected to rape dozens of times a day for a very long period of time -- what does that do to someone? >> conflict-related sexual violence, first of all, is a very broad term. conflict-related sexual slavery is a small part of this

horrifying violence that many women and gender nonconforming people experienced. one thing that is very important to acknowledge is not only is there a component of sexual violence, but there are also other forms of violence that survivors experience in tandem, including forced labor, forced marriage, forced sterilization, and sometimes even trafficking, amongst other forms of violence, and the impacts of this are psychological. they are physical, and societal. a lot of the survivors face and a lot of stigma when they return to their communities if they are able to, and it is very difficult for them to reintegrate themselves. many have children born of rape and really struggled to raise those children or access safe abortions or even be able to cope with the trauma, so those are some of the impacts of sexual slavery. >> sexual slavery in times of

war has not gone away, has it? >> no, unfortunately not. conflict-related sexual slavery is a widespread systematic, institutionalized and deliberate human rights abuse committed i state and non-state armed groups alike, and we have seen the context in which conflict-related sexual slavery occurs has evolved since world war ii, and the rise of violent extremists groups and criminal networks has contributed to this widespread use of the bodies of women and girls as a form of currency in the political economy of war. forced displacement, refugee crises, and humanitarian emergencies, as a result of armed conflict, have further exacerbated insecurity for women and girls, increasing their vulnerability to sexual slavery. we have seen examples from nigeria to syria to guatemala, so it is very, very present and

an insidious form of violence across the world. >> we have to leave it there. thank you very much for your time. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> let's bring in the rest of our guests now as we turned specifically to the issue of comfort women. as i say, a very poor euphemism. hundreds of thousands of victims . between 2015 to 2016, the japanese government seemed to go from apologizing to denying the experience of these women. what is your experience in terms of where things are at right now in terms of its attitude toward these women and its attitude toward true remorse and redress? >> what you're describing is not really seen as a new phenomenon from the perspective of many koreans. the position of the japanese

government as seen by many korean people has been somewhat -- let's say fluctuating. the comfort women agreement in 2015 can be seen as part of it, but unofficially, there are comments made by japanese politicians that seem to question the importance of this agreement, the importance of acknowledging this legacy, and these kind of statements continue to fuel significant discontent in south korea over if japan in fact is sincere about addressing the issue and having an active dialogue about what was actually done by itself in the colonial period. that is really one source of tension as we move forward, and as we mark the 30th anniversary

of the protests decrying japan's recruitment of comfort women today. yeah, they continue to talk about the fact that korea never release received -- never really received a sincere apology from japan. >> do you agree with that assessment in terms of japan's fluctuating response? do you think japan has shown remorse, continues to show true remorse? >> no, i would not say japan has shown remorse, certainly not from the recent government. as was mentioned at the start, when the agreement was concluded in 2015 under the previous president, and since president

moon decided to discontinue cooperation with the agreement in 2019, ever since the japanese government's position has been that it is up to south korea to resume that agreement, and mr. kisha is in no mood to compromise on that stance at all, particularly when he is under pressure from the conservative elements in his liberal democratic party, who are largely responsible for him winning the leadership last october. that includes former prime minister abe, who is the head of the largest faction. i do not see any room for compromise on the japanese government's part at all. >> is there any issue with describing this as an agreement? i mean, we are talking about

hundreds of thousands of women who work systematically raped, and then you pull out and go to the politics on that, we are talking about agreements between countries. what is your take on japan's stance? >> japan's stance is the fact that we cannot go any further. the reason for this being there has been agreement in 1965. the issue, the compensation claims were complete and final, and we also had various other opportunities, especially in regards to comfort women back in 2000 -- i think it was 15. there has been further agreement. the fact of the matter is, of course, whatever agreement you may have, whatever agreement the coalition may have, the hurt and pain and these deeds could never be compensated. that is a fact, but at the same

time, we need to go forward, especially considering the economic ties that we have in these countries. it is very clear we have to go forward, but the fact of the matter is what the chinese high court did in 2015 is basically saying that the wartime labor is basically breaking all the international laws. in other words, they are acting almost like a backstreet drug dealer with absolutely no respect at all of international agreements, and my opinion is -- what can the japanese government due under the situation, where you are seeing virtually no

agreement and the korean government often taking a stance to utilize this as their political tool? the fact of the matter is that it is very difficult for the japanese government to make any official, for example, apologies because they know things could only get worse because they will be taken advantage of. let's not forget that after the 2018 report on korea, japan's direct investment into korea has declined by 41%, but for the rest of the world, it has dropped by 40% as well. the reason is obvious -- nobody wants to have a deal with a country that has absolutely no respect for agreement. the fact of the matter is that we have to go on forward. we have to separate these issues from the emotional issues versus the economic inequalities. >> do you agree with that? >> well, um, we heard the

expression "being taken advantage of" for apologizing. germany being a country that committed wartime crimes that are internationally recognized and continues to apologize for them year after year, and they do not consider the fact that this is something they could be taken advantage of four, so if there is such an example, what stops japan from doing the same, went it is clear, not just from the perspective of koreans, but also from the international community, united nations included, and even activists in new york, that the comfort women system was criminal? that is something to think about. at the same time, i believe the professor does raise an important point. korea and pan signed an international agreement. they said this is final and

reversible, so is it possible for korea to say the deal is now off? there are questions even within korea as to if this is possible. let's not forget that the president and former foreign minister never actually q■uestioned the validityofthe video. with the government does instead is to engage in actions that jeopardize the deal, for example, closing the foundation that advantages the ¥1 million compensation and also they are trying to say that whatever money has so far been dispersed from this compensation fund will be made up by the south korean government and that the government will find a way to give that money back to japan, but certainly not everybody believes this is possible. >> what is your assessment in terms of what all of this has

done to japan's relationship with south korea? >> it is just one of the factors which has seen deterioration in relations over recent years. it is not just this issue. it is also the recent dispute over the territorial waters between japan and south korea, particularly the islands that have been occupied by south korea since the korean war, and also other long-running issues, the legacy of the colonial era and trade disputes in general, although, ironically, there are prospects for some improvements. since the beginning of this year, the regional creative economic partnership, massive multilateral trade deal, has come into effect affecting china

and most of the states in the asia-pacific including south korea and japan, so there is a prospect for some breakthrough in trade relations, but, really, it is going to take some external efforts, i think, by allies of south korea and japan to try and get some mutual resolution, particularly in the united states, but even other countries, including australia, which has trade and security relations with both countries. there's going to be quite a lot of diplomatic effort from not just between south korea and japan but amongst its partners in the region to try to get some progress happening. >> correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe that japan does not have a national human rights commission.

what does that say to you about its willingness and ability to confront human rights abuses of the past? >> the fact of the matter is that we are different on a lot of issues. there's a lot of vested interest involved in this country, and for that reason, there are many things that are quite behind, especially towards international standards, particularly in areas of management including not only corporations but also bureaucracy as well, but if you are trying to paint a picture that, for example, are human rights hour -- acknowledgment or awareness, that is certainly not the case. to put an analogy to this whole issue, it is quite simple in my opinion. i think there was a very good example about the comparison with germany, but the fact of the matter is -- and i agree with him, but the fact of the

matter is, what happens in germany, how their attitudes will change if for example poland or the netherlands or other countries that they have been basically invading during world war ii -- what if these countries start to just basically shut down the factories of siemens or whatever and change the agreement made several years ago? the main factor is coalition on the economic side, especially with the aggression we are seeing from china. the fact of the matter is we do have to create a good coalition, and there's a lot of things these two countries can basically learn from each other and basically create a lot of synergism, but unfortunately, it is showing negative synergy at this point, and that basically comes from this preoccupation

and perception that has been created by both parties, but i think particularly by the korean politicians to the public up korea. >> there's a lot of talk about, obviously, the agreements, politics, what this has done to the economy. has there been a revictimization of these women who experienced these atrocities? they have been protesting for 30 years. what are they saying now, those that are left, about the impact it is having on them, those who experienced all of this? >> in the immediate aftermath of the 2015 agreement, many of the survivors came forward saying they did not agree with this and that the government has no right to decide what they should settle for, but it has become increasingly difficult to really hear the voices of these survivors simply because many of

them are no longer here. they have passed away. in the absence of those voices, there has been quite a, let's say, cultural battle in korea to determine how this issue should be served. there was a very important scandal in korea involving one of the figureheads of this movement, who later ended up becoming a proportional representative in the national assembly for the ruling party. she has been acing numerous allegations about embezzling funds that are meant to assist these survivors, and it certainly has discredited this campaign to a certain extent. also, there have been instances where certain other voices about the comfort women legacy are being silenced. one example is a book by a professor who had different

takes on the matter from what the mainstream historiography will call for, and for that reason, the book has been censored and her career is in trouble, and she is also facing various lawsuits. it is a very difficult climate also in korea where different opinions can be expressed about comfort women precisely because comfort women themselves are not necessarily in a position to say what they really went through anymore. >> we are coming to the end of the program. we have about a minute left. how do you think this will play out, this disagreement over the agreement around comfort women and the legacy? >> i don't think anything has any prospect of moving ahead until at least after the elections for the south korean president during march, depending on who is the new president, that might have the

chance for raising the issue again. also, if mr. kistner performs well, then he will be able to have a bit more political leeway domestically to possibly move ahead and try and resolve this issue, but there's probably not going to be any diplomatic movement ahead of those domestic elections. >> thank you to all of our guests, and thank you, too, for watching. view the program again any time by visiting our website. for further discussion, go to our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter. goodbye for now. ♪

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