As South Korea and Japan held their first director-general-level meeting Tuesday to discuss follow-up steps on their “comfort women” deal, Japanese news reports said a foundation to compensate the victims -- as agreed by the two governments -- will likely launch this summer.

Chung Byung-won, the new director general for Northeast Asian affairs at Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, flew late Monday to Tokyo for talks with Kimihiro Ishikane, director general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

Under the deal, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered an apology and promised to provide 1 billion yen ($8.95 million) from state coffers to set up the foundation here for the victims, acknowledging the government’s responsibility for its military’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.

The move to launch the foundation will likely kick into high gear this summer, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun daily reported, noting that related discussions may be accelerated if they manage to settle on the removal of a symbolic statue that represents the victims placed in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.

Formation of the foundation has been opposed by the Korean sex slavery victims and groups representing them citing a lack of formal apology and direct and legal compensation. Civic groups here have also been vehemently against the statue’s relocation.

“Consultations are under way with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family over the launch of the foundation and other issues on our basis that a swift implementation of the agreement is crucial,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jo June-hyuck said at a regular news briefing.

Meanwhile, the two officials were also expected to confer on a planned trilateral summit between President Park Geun-hye, U.S President Barack Obama and the Japanese premier on the margins of a nuclear security conference in Washington next month. The event will deal with North Korea’s nuclear issues in light of its latest nuclear and missile tests, according to diplomatic sources here.

Despite lingering tensions, in particular over Tokyo’s claims to Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, the two nations have been seeking to step up security cooperation with the U.S since the sex slavery settlement.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)