South Korea and Japan made "significant" progress in their talks to draw up followup measures related to a foundation recently launched to help the Korean women sexually enslaved by Japanese troops during its colonial rule decades ago, a government source said Tuesday.

The headway was made during a meeting held in Seoul between Chung Byung-won, director-general of the South Korean foreign ministry’s Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau, and his Japanese counterpart, Kenji Kanasugi, according to the source close to the matter.

Launched in July, the "Reconciliation and Healing" foundation came into being under the December deal aimed at resolving the deep-running rift over the victims of sexual slavery, euphemistically called comfort women. Tokyo promised to contribute 1 billion yen ($9.8 million) to the foundation.

At issue was the date the promised money will be delivered to the foundation and how the foundation will carry out detailed projects tailored to meet the needs of the individual victims.

“Significant progress was made,” the insider told a group of reporters on the condition of anonymity. “We will report the results of today’s meeting to our higher-ups and accordingly take followup measures.”

The meeting drew keen attention, as it came amid persistent controversy over how much Japan would be involved in the foundation’s work and whether the money was promised in return for the Seoul government’s cooperation in removing the statue of a girl that has been placed before the Japanese Embassy to symbolize the suffering of the comfort women.

The government has said that the foundation will use the money for its intended purpose -- healing the scars of the victims -- and that Seoul doesn’t have a say in removing the statute since it was set up by a civic group.

“We had in-depth internal talks on the general direction of the business to be implemented through the foundation. Based on that, we had talks with Japan and they were quite good ones,” the source said.

“When the foundation was launched, its chief said that related projects will be carried out in a way to help victims regain their dignity and make it possible to heal their scars,” he added. “She promised to meet all of them one by one to provide tailored support and, with that in mind, we held talks with Japan.”

The Dec. 28 deal was hailed by the international community as a step in the right direction, given that the comfort women issue has been a long-standing obstacle to ties between the two neighboring countries.

Under the deal, Tokyo expressed an apology for its colonial-era atrocities and agreed to a foundation dedicated to supporting the surviving victims.

Still, it has been drawing flak from some victims and civic groups who have accused the government of striking a deal lacking Japan’s acknowledgment of its legal responsibility. They also said the agreement was reached without prior consultation with the victims.

Historians estimate that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were forced to work in front-line brothels for Japanese troops during World War II. Forty South Korean victims, mostly in their late 80s, are currently known to be alive. (Yonhap)