Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a landmark apology to South Korean “comfort women” coerced into Japanese military brothels before and during World War II, with his government agreeing to provide 1 billion yen to a fund for compensating victims. The governments of Japan and South Korea agreed that this would be a final “irreversible” solution to an issue that has dogged bilateral ties for decades.

Resolving the issue — the biggest source of tension between the two U.S. allies — might give both leaders a political bounce as they prepare for legislative elections next year, as well as help reinvigorate trade that has declined in recent years. Improved ties would also be welcomed by the United States, which has more than 75,000 troops in the two countries as they deal with a rising China and a nuclear-armed North Korea.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye told the agreement could be a new starting point for relations with Japan, according to the website of her office. The two governments also agreed to avoid criticism of one another on the international stage over the issue. South Korea’s Yun also said that his country would address the question of a comfort woman statue set up by activists outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

What happened in the Past?

• Japan colonized the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945 — a period still recalled with resentment by many Koreans.
• Historians say anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 women — many of them Korean — served in Japan’s military brothels.
• Japan apologized in 1993 and set up a compensation fund that was rejected by some victims because it was privately funded.