Despite persistent setbacks, Seoul and Tokyo made progress during a consultation Tuesday in their efforts to set up a foundation for the victims of Japan’s wartime sex slavery, a senior official said.

Chung Byung-won, director general for Northeast Asian affairs at the Foreign Ministry here, flew Monday to Tokyo for talks with Kimihiro Ishikane, director general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

The two-hour meeting centered on the foundation issues, Chung said, noting that the two diplomats agreed to implement last December’s settlement “in a steady and speedy manner.”

“It’s fairly safe to regard so,” he told reporters, when asked if the sides had managed to make headway. “I can’t give you a concrete time frame but we’re aiming to open the foundation as early as possible.”

Under the compromise, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered an apology and pledged to provide 1 billion yen ($9.1 million) from state coffers to establish the organization, conceding to the government’s responsibility for its military’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry has created a task force with the Ministry of Gender Equality & Family, experts and other related figures, seeking to unveil a steering committee for the foundation this month.

Yet the initiative has hit a string of snags. Many former “comfort women” and their advocates have sternly opposed the deal, filing a constitutional appeal, while Tokyo has called for taking down a memorial that represents the victims placed in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.

“Our plans to launch the preparation committee remain unchanged. We’re currently working on its formation, duties and roles and so forth, with the goal of introducing it as quickly as possible, within this month or at least in a few weeks,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck said at a regular news briefing.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)