My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and now I am a writer who has written

three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                                 One form of contention that remains between Japan and South Korea are the

statues of the comfort women put in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul and the Japanese consulate in

Busan. These statues of comfort women in both locations were put up by civic groups (read liberal and leftist

organizations) in spite of the South Korea-Japan Comfort Women Agreement reached by both governments to deal with an issue that has been a source of friction for decades. Both sides had considered it a final solution, and the Japanese government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe barely pushed this agreement through Japan's parliament the National Diet. Recently, the head of the Korean Residents Union (Mindan), O Gong-tae, 

requested that the South Korean government remove the two statutes in front of the Japanese embassy and

consulate since these are a violation of the agreement and is causing bad blood between ordinary Japanese

and Koreans residing in Japan. Coming from a pro-Seoul organization this is a sad commentary on the

relationship between the two countries now. I have already stated that if South Korea cannot keep an 

agreement between itself and Japan, then it will join North Korea as a country that cannot keep an

agreement. The South Korean government contends that the statues "privately done," and that they can do nothing about it. In my view, the South Korean government is too afraid of doing something about it. If a civic group put up a statue of a Russian soldier raping a Korean lady in front of the Russian embassy, would the South Korean government let it stand?! The problem is that the civic groups are doing this to drive a wedge between Japan and South Korea so that they can destroy relations between the two and drive South Korea into the China/North Korea camp. These civic groups do not care about the Korean residents in Japan, and could care less about the safety of Korean residents in Japan. They want to separate South Korea from Japan and the United States as much as possible. These civic groups are using extreme hatred to cause as much political, economic and social damage as possible.