Another former WWII sex slave dies

An elderly Korean woman forced into sexual servitude by Japan’s World War II military has died, an advocacy group said Monday, the second death of a former sex slave in less than a week.

The victim died of a chronic illness at an undisclosed hospital on Jan. 31, the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan said.

“We cannot disclose any information, including her name and age, because she and her family never wanted to make public that she was a victim,” the group said.

Her funeral will be held behind closed doors, according to the will of the deceased and her family, it added.

Her death came only five days after Hwang Jeong-soon, a former World War II sex slave, died at a hospital in South Jeolla Province, at age 89, on Monday last week.

The latest death lowers the number of known surviving Korean victims of Japanese sex slavery to 53, the council said.

Historians estimate there were about 200,000 sex slaves from all over Asia. Most of them are believed to have been Korean, though the South Korean government only has 238 registered in its database.

Japan has yet to atone properly for its wartime sexual slavery and has not paid direct compensation to any of the victims.

South Korea has pressed Japan to address long-running grievances by extending a formal apology and compensating the victims. But Japan has refused to do so, saying the matter was settled by a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.

“Let’s join our efforts to settle the Japanese sex slavery issue as soon as possible so the aging victims whose time is running out can win true liberation,” the council said in a release. (Yonhap)