It has been a year since South Korea’s Foreign Ministry announced it had reached a deal with its Japanese counterpart to settle the bilateral dispute over the wartime sex slavery during the Japanese colonial rule of the peninsula.

However, the majority of Korean citizens say they do not agree to the Dec. 28 accord, as polls show. A group of college students are still staging a sit-in day and night to guard a statue symbolizing victims in front of the Japanese Embassy in Junghak-dong, Seoul.

Their taking turns watching over the statue is due to Japan’s alleged demand that Korea remove the statue in exchange for offering 1 billion yen ($8.5 million) under the pretext of compensation to victims.

Over the removal scheme allegation, Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs needs to publicize the truth behind the accord. A senior official of the ministry told reporters a year ago that there was no behind-the-scenes bilateral agreement.

If his remarks are true, Seoul would find little reason to accept the demand.

If the accord includes removal or relocation of the statue, the coming situation will enter a serious phase.

In that case, the government should be held accountable for deceiving citizens. A solution for the ministry is to demand Tokyo make an official apology in a sincere manner, of which level must be acceptable by both victims and the majority of citizens.

It should be -- alongside Tokyo’s higher level of apology -- a confession of its crime against Korean women during World War II. Otherwise, the Korean public would not tolerate the reported removal plan.

The seriousness lies in the fact that some Japanese right-leaning power brokers are struggling to distort slavery records. Some of them argue female Koreans had volunteered to be “comfort women.”

Their distortion may allow some in Japan, including students, and those in other countries to encounter incorrect historical information.

Should ministry officials tolerate the sort of distortion and move to respond to unreasonable demands, they will be nothing more than betrayers to the nation, like the suspended President Park Geun-hye.

The two countries clarified that the deal is irrevocable as a diplomatic agreement. This is ridiculous -- there was no agreement from victims nor ratification from the National Assembly.

Some citizens, in that context, allege that Park’s civilian confidante Choi Soon-sil could have meddled in the deal like many other allegations of influence-peddling in state affairs.

Still, a large portion of the public seemingly doesn’t support the speculation, as Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se recently dismissed it.

Then, Yun has the obligation to explain to the public why the Park administration had to reach the poor deal. It is illogical to say that Yun had initiated it without close consultations with Cheong Wa Dae.

An apparent fact is that the current administrative situation is totally different from before Oct. 24, 2016, when Park’s irregularities were exposed. The incumbent administration has lost credibility, and most state affairs after her inauguration on Feb. 25, 2013 should be subject to review or scrutiny.

Like the policies of publishing state-authored school history books and shutdown of the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial park, the sex slavery accord cannot be an exception from close review.

The independent counsel, which is investigating the Park scandal, or the prosecution need to look into the background of the deal. The National Assembly-led investigation is also required in the coming months, following the current parliamentary probe, which is focused on the Sewol ferry disaster and the presidential office’s shady connections with conglomerates.

Time does not matter. Truth should be revealed to really console victims and revise the undermined national pride from the disgraceful deal.

Japanese policymakers should also be aware that it would be hard for the two countries to build sound relations in the future unless there is righteous correction via renegotiations.