S. Koreans mixed on 'comfort woman' deal: poll

SEOUL, Dec. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Koreans are split nearly equally over the recent deal between their country and Japan regarding Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, a local survey showed Thursday.

Some 50.7 percent of the respondents disapproved of the Monday agreement, under which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologized for his country's atrocity and promised to pay 1 billion yen (US$8.3 million) in damages, a survey by South Korean pollster Realmeter showed.

Those who supported it accounted for 43.2 percent of the respondents, with the remaining 6.1 percent saying they weren't sure.

Younger respondents tend to oppose the agreement more than the elderly, with the majority of those between the ages 20 and 49 rejecting it as unfair. But the majority of those aged 50 and above favored the deal, the survey showed.

Historians estimate that more than 200,000 women, mostly from Korea but also other parts of Asia, were coerced into sexual servitude at front-line Japanese military brothels during the war.

The survey was conducted on 508 South Korean adults nationwide on Wednesday. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.4 percentage points with a confidence level of 95 percent.

sojungpark@yna.co.kr
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