Wartime sex slavery victim Kim Hwa-seon dies

Kim Hwa-seon, a Korean victim of forced sexual slavery during the Japanese colonial period, died Wednesday.

Kim died of natural causes at a hospital in Gwangju, according to the House of Sharing, an organization for the so-called comfort women. She was 86.

Kim was taken by Japan’s Imperial Army to Singapore in 1941.

After Korea’s independence she lived alone in the city of Daejeon until she moved to live at the House of Sharing in 2011.

The number of women staying at the facility has been reduced to eight.

During the Sino-Japanese war and the World War II, an estimated 200,000 Korean females were forcefully drafted to work as comfort women.

Among 234 registered victims in the government data, only 60 people currently survive.

Another two women passed away earlier this year and nine died last year. The majority of the survivors are in poor health.

Meanwhile, the 1,026th weekly Wednesday Protest was held the same day in front of the Japanese Embassy.

The protest was first held in 1992 to call on Japan to apologize to the victims.

President Lee Myung-bak recently at a media interview urged the Japanese government to apologize to the victims.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)