Comfort women take protest to Japan

Three Korean women who were drafted as sex slaves by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II took a trip to Japan on Sunday to demand an apology for its wartime wrongdoings.

The House of Sharing, a shelter for the “comfort women” in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, said the group would hold a series of protests in Tokyo and Kyoto until Sept. 29.

They will testify on Japan’s wartime sex slavery during their protests and demand that Japan’s assembly pass a resolution to resolve the comfort women issue, the organization said.

Yi Ok-seon, 85, one of the three participants, has already traveled to the U.S. and Germany to raise international awareness of the comfort women issue.

Kang Il-chul, 86, who is accompanying Yi on the trip, previously also visited Hokkaido and Osaka to testify about Japan’s past actions.

Meanwhile, Seoul is considering raising the issue of Japan’s wartime sex slavery at the United Nations when foreign minister Yun Byung-se attends the U.N. General Assembly meeting on Friday.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)