South Korean Prez vows to address grievances of victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery

Seoul, Aug 14 (IANS) South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday vowed to address long-standing grievances of Korean women forced into sexual slavery for the old Japanese army during World War II, saying that he would spare no efforts to restore the victims' "honour and dignity."

According to historians, up to 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were coerced into sexual servitude in front-line Japanese brothels during the war, when the Korean Peninsula was a Japanese colony.

Those sex slaves were euphemistically called "comfort women" and, as old survivors have continued to die, there are only six surviving victims in South Korea, reports Yonhap news agency.

As the nation marked a memorial day for the victims, Lee said the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japan's colonial rule 80 years ago will remain "incomplete until the truth is set straight."

"Although this year marks the 80th anniversary of the country's liberation, the comfort women victims still cannot enjoy freedom and peace, because the issue still remains unresolved despite decades having passed," Lee posted on Facebook.

The Aug. 14 memorial day was designated in 2017 in honour of the late Kim Hak-sun, who was the first to come forward publicly and testify about her experience as a victim on August 14, 1991.

"It was Kim's courage that awakened the conscience of the international community and started a wave of solidarity," he said.

He then pledged all-out efforts to "fully restore the honour and dignity" of the victims and vowed to build a nation where "human rights are common sense."

Aug. 14 is also the eve of Liberation Day, which marks the end of the 1910-45 Japanese colonisation of the Korean Peninsula.

--IANS

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