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Korea renews call for Japan to squarely acknowledge wartime sexual slavery

Published: 16 Sep. 2025, 16:16

Busts of victims of sexual slavery under Japanese colonial rule are seen lined up in front of a memorial center in Gwangju, Gyeonggi on Aug. 21. [YONHAP]

Korea has renewed its call for Japan to squarely acknowledge its wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II in a letter to the U.N. human rights body, the document showed Tuesday.

Historians estimate that 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were forced to work in Japanese front-line brothels during the war. The victims are euphemistically referred to as "comfort women."

Korea reaffirmed its stance on the issue of Japan's wartime sexual slavery in a written response submitted Friday to a U.N. group of human rights experts, following an inquiry also sent to Tokyo at the request of four Korean victims.

The U.N. body made the same inquiry to China, the Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor and the Netherlands, the countries that were also victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery.

"The ROK government has endeavored and will continue to endeavor to restore the honor and dignity of 'comfort women' victims and heal their psychological wounds," the letter showed. The ROK is short for the Republic of Korea, Korea's official name.

"The ROK government recently stated that it intends to pursue forward-looking cooperation with Japan that benefits both countries, while hoping that Japan will squarely face up to our painful history and strive to maintain trust between our two countries," the letter said.

Korea also noted that the comfort women issue is a "universal human rights" matter concerning wartime sexual violence, not just one that is related to some countries.

"[It] ... is a key instance of wartime sexual violence which is not an issue confined to any particular group of countries, but rather is a matter of women's universal human rights," it said.

A statue of peace, depicting a young girl victimized by Japanese sexual slavery, is seen in front of a former building of the Japanese Embassy in Jongno District, central Seoul on Aug. 21. [YONHAP]

Regarding the statues of young girls representing the victims, set up by civic groups around the world, the government called it "a voluntary initiative" to prevent similar tragedies.

The U.N. experts voiced concerns that the survivors are still denied justice, truth, reparations and the right to remembrance.

They highlighted the need for recognition, apology, accountability and reparations for the victims, most of whom have died, with a few survivors remaining.

Tokyo has maintained that everything was settled under a 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral relations or by a 2015 government-to-government deal on the comfort women issue.

The 2015 agreement, reached during former President Park Geun-hye's government, includes Japan's apology and acknowledgment of responsibility for its military's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II. But Koreans believe Japan has yet to fully atone for its wartime atrocities.

The agreement was scrapped under the preceding President Moon Jae-in's government in 2018.

In response to the U.N. inquiry, Japan reiterated that all reparations issues were "settled completely and finally" through the 1965 treaty, and the comfort women issue was also "resolved finally and irreversibly" with the 2015 agreement.

Yonhap