Five of the eight directors of a foundation set up by the South Korean government to support the surviving former "comfort women" with Japanese funding are resigning, it was learned Saturday from sources familiar with the situation.
The resignation letters of all five private-sector members of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation's board were dated Tuesday and raise the possibility that its management may have effectively ceased.
The foundation was formally launched in July last year with 11 board members as part of the 2015 agreement signed by South Korea and Japan to permanently resolve their dispute over the Korean girls and women forced into Japan's military brothels before and during the war.
Two of them stepped down in spring. President Moon Jae-in, who has a critical view of the agreement, took office in May.
In July, Gender Equality and Family Minister Chung Hyun-back, whose portfolio covers issues involving the comfort women, Japan's euphemism for the victims, said the foundation would be subject to a complete review.
Kim Tae-hyeon, the inaugural head of the foundation, announced her resignation later that month.
The remaining three directors are all public servants dispatched by the government.
The five resignations were submitted a day before a report critical of the 2015 deal was released by a government task force.
A foundation official said Saturday that the five members, who were appointed under the previous administration of ousted President Park Geun-hye, "decided they should step down" given the certainty of an unfavorable review.
The foundation was in charge of providing cash payments to victims and their families from a fund established with ¥1 billion (about $8.8 million) disbursed by Japan.
Of the 47 victims who were still alive when the agreement was reached, 36 of them or their kin have received or indicated their intent to accept the funds.
