Weekly rally held after latest death of former comfort woman

More than 1,000 activists, citizens and students gathered to pay respects to Kim Kun-ja, a former comfort woman who recently passed away, at a weekly rally against Japan's wartime sexual slavery in front of the Japanese Embassy here on Wednesday.

Kim died Sunday at the age of 91 at the House of Sharing in Gwangju, east of Seoul, a shelter for former surviving comfort women, a euphemism for Korean women who were forcibly taken to front-line brothels to serve Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Her death shrank the total number of such survivors to just 37, who are in their 80s and 90s. More than 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, are believed to have fallen victim to Japan's wartime atrocity.  

Kim was sent to a Japanese military brothel in China's northeastern Jilin province at 17, and attempted suicide seven times during her three years there. In February 2007, she testified about Japan's war crime at a US congressional hearing for the first time.

At the Wednesday rally, the 1,293rd, Kim's portrait, along with a chrysanthemum, was placed, with Kim Won-ok, another surviving 89-year-old comfort woman, on hand amid the sweltering heat.

"We pray for the soul of the late Kim Kun-ja who had suffered unbearable suffering as a human," said Kim Joo-eop, the leader of a union of public servants.

Yoon Mi-hyang, chairwoman of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, criticized the government for just saying it will "review" a 2015 Seoul-Tokyo deal on comfort women first instead of declaring it invalid.

"The government should immediately dismantle a reconciliation foundation launched by the deal, and President Moon declare its invalidity as he promised to do so during the presidential election," she said.

Some 1,000 elementary, middle and high school students, who are now on summer vacation, attended the rally, calling for Japan's official apology and compensation.

The Korea Council launched the weekly rally in January 1992 when then-Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa visited the country. Since then, the rally has been held at noon every Wednesday in front of the Japanese Embassy. In March 2002, the gathering was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest rally on a single theme. (Yonhap)