Tension rose between the governments of Seoul and Tokyo this week as they countered each other’s interpretation of the sex slavery deal’s mandate over the removal of a statue in Seoul symbolizing the victims.

Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hagiuda Koichi said in a press briefing on Wednesday that the removal was part of the bilateral deal reached between Seoul and Tokyo last December to resolve the comfort women issue once and for all.

“I acknowledge that removing the statue could be considered as a step toward the bigger aim of building a new relationship between Japan and Korea,” Koichi told reporters, signaling that it is a measure that should be taken before implementing the agreement.

His remarks, made on behalf of Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, ran counter to South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s remarks a day earlier. She said that the removal of the statue had “never” been mentioned during the deal and that further discussion would only “compound confusion” over the issue.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry also dismissed Koichi’s comment as an “arbitrary assessment” of the bilateral agreement. The ministry has reiterated that the government cannot enforce the removal of the statue which is installed by a private entity.

Korea and Japan agreed to resolve the sex slavery issue by establishing a 1 billion yen ($8.3 million) fund paid by Tokyo and run by Seoul to help the victims.

“There is no commitment to the removal (of the statute) in the agreement,” the ministry’s spokesperson Cho June-hyuk told reporters on Thursday. “It has nothing to do with creating funds (for the sex slavery victims). The two issues are totally separate ones,” Cho said.

It was not the first time that Koichi, one of the close aides of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has roiled the debate over the statue of “comfort women” -- a life-size bronze statue of a barefoot girl erected in 2011 and placed opposite the Japanese Embassy.

On April 6, Koichi said in a Japanese media interview that last year’s agreement was a “packaged” deal, hinting that offering compensation to the South Korean victims is contingent upon the statue’s removal.

“They are specified in the agreement. They are kind of a package, I think,” the official said, when asked which of the measures should be implemented first -- Tokyo’s contribution of 1 billion yen to a fund or the removal of the comfort women statue.

(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)