“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed that he described “comfort women,” mainly Asian females who were forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese soldiers, as victims of “human trafficking” in a recent interview with The Washington Post. The remarks provoked a backlash from South Korea. A South Korean official said Saturday that the remarks were a deception if Abe had been attempting to shift the blame for the forcible recruitment of the comfort women to private brokers and deny the government’s involvement.”