A key plank of last year's landmark deal between Japan and South Korea over reparations for former wartime "comfort women" is a step closer with the launch of a committee Tuesday to help establish a victims' support foundation.

The foundation, a condition of the Dec. 28 accord to resolve the simmering bilateral issue "finally and irreversibly," will be tasked with helping improve the lives of aging former Korean women forced into wartime brothels for the Japanese military.

The committee of 11 members held its first meeting Tuesday.

"I feel a heavy sense of responsibility by having a sensitive and important mission at this important time," Kim Tae-hyun, who heads the committee, told reporters after chairing the meeting.

Kim, an honorary professor at Sungshin Women's University in Seoul, said the committee will begin canvassing victims' opinions with a view to restoring their honor and dignity.

The terms of the agreement between Japan and South Korea also included an apology and a financial pledge by Japan of ¥1 billion toward the foundation, which is to be set up by the South Korean government.

Kim will likely also head the foundation, which is expected to be established in late June.

The deal over former comfort women has been criticized by some of the victims, as well as activists and opposition parties, who have called on Japan to admit legal responsibility for compensation.

The Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule between 1910 and 1945.