FOR ENGLISH FANS: 'Comfort women': Japan and South Korea hail agreement

Monday, 28 December 2015

'Comfort women': Japan and South Korea hail agreement

The leaders of Japan and South Korea have welcomed the agreement between their two countries to settle the issue of "comfort women" forced to work in Japanese brothels during World War Two.

Protesters sit next to a statue (C) of a South Korean teenage girl in traditional costume called the 'peace monument' for former 'comfort women' who served as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War Two, during a weekly anti-Japanese demonstration near the Japanese embassy in Seoul on 11 November 2015.

Activists for comfort women erected a statue of a girl which they call a "peace monument" outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011

Japan has apologised and will pay 1bn yen ($8.3m; £5.6m) - the amount South Korea asked for - to fund victims.Estimates suggest up to 200,000 women were sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during WW2, many of them Korean. Other women came from China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.The issue has been the key cause of strained relations between Japan and South Korea.

Only 46 former "comfort women" are still alive in South Korea.

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The agreement came after Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met his counterpart Yun Byung-se in Seoul, following moves to speed up talks.

Later Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe phoned South Korean President Park Geun-hye to repeat an apology already offered by Mr Kishida.

"Japan and South Korea are now entering a new era," Mr Abe told reporters afterwards. "We should not drag this problem into the next generation."

Ms Park issued a separate statement, saying a deal had been urgently needed - given the advanced age of most of the victims.

"Nine died this year alone," she said. "I hope the mental pains of the elderly comfort women will be eased."

Comfort Women, rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, August 2011

Japan-South Korea 'comfort women' deal

Japan will give 1bn yen to a fund for the elderly comfort women, which the South Korean government will administer
The money also comes with an apology by Japan's prime minister and the acceptance of "deep responsibility" for the issue
South Korea says it will consider the matter resolved "finally and irreversibly" if Japan fulfils its promises
South Korea will also look into removing a statue symbolising comfort women, which activists erected outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011
Both sides have agreed to refrain from criticising each other on this issue in the international community

From BBC

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Agatha Christie's short biography

Agatha Christie was born in 1890, the youngest of three children in a conservative, well-to-do family. Her father was called Frederick Miller so she was born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. She was educated at home and studied singing in Paris.

In 1914, at the age of 24, she married Archie Christie, a World War I fighter pilot. While he was off at war, she worked as a nurse. It was while working in a hospital during the war that Christie first came up with the idea of writing a detective novel. Although it was completed in a year, it wasn't published until 1920.

In 1926, Agatha made news herself when she disappeared for a few days after her husband wanted a divorce. She was soon found to be staying in a hotel under an alias. Her disappearance is still a mystery! She and Archibald divorced in 1928.

She fell in love with Max Mallowan, a young archaeologist whom she met on a trip to Mesopotamia and married in 1930 and Agatha Christie became Agatha Christie Mallowan. In 1971 she was awarded the high honor of becoming a Dame of the British Empire.

Agatha Christie ultimately became the acknowledged Queen of the Golden Age. She wrote nearly seventy novels in her career and more than a hundred short stories. Her most famous characters are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Agatha Christie also wrote six romantic novels under the name Mary Westmacott. Several of her works were made into successful feature films, the most notable being Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Agatha's plays have also made her famous and her best known play, The Mousetrap, is most likely the best known mystery play in the world. Her work has been translated into more than a hundred languages. In short, she is the single most popular mystery writer of all time.

Agatha Christie died in 12 January 1976, two years after Max Mallowan died.

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Monday, 28 December 2015

'Comfort women': Japan and South Korea hail agreement

The leaders of Japan and South Korea have welcomed the agreement between their two countries to settle the issue of "comfort women" forced to work in Japanese brothels during World War Two.

Japan-South Korea 'comfort women' deal

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