A comfort women statue that had been installed on the grounds of the state-run Kassel University in central Germany has been removed, according to a report. Last July, students at the university had installed the statue in cooperation with a Korean civic group in Germany.
According to Yonhap, the students installed the statue with the university’s permission, but the president of the university notified them in September of the same year to remove it. The Korean civic group, the Korea Council, claimed that the removal of the statue was “due to the Japanese government’s demand for its removal.
The university, on the other hand, explained in a statement that the reason for the removal was “because the deadline for the installation has expired. The deadline for displaying the statue had been extended by seven months from the original schedule. The removal of the statue will take place on January 9, and the university will keep the statue until the owner takes it back.
In Germany, in addition to the university, a comfort women statue was installed in September 2020 on official land in the capital city of Berlin’s Mitte district, led by the Korea Council. The Japanese government lobbied the German side, and in October of the following year, the mayor of the Mitte district ordered the removal of the statue, but the order was withdrawn due to violent protests on the part of the Korea Council.
After giving permission for the installation of the statue for one year, the Mitte District decided to extend the installation period again in August 2009. The Japanese government has protested to the district and other German officials, claiming that this was a unilateral decision and demanding that the statue be removed as soon as possible.
The 2015 Japan-South Korea agreement confirms the “final and irreversible resolution” of the comfort women issue. It states that the two sides will refrain from mutual accusations and criticism in the international community.
