Home > National > Diplomacy

Ex-'comfort woman' urges gov't to act to receive apology from Japan

Published: 01 Oct. 2025, 17:38

Minister of Gender Equality and Family Won Min-kyung, left, meets with Lee Yong-soo, a survivor of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, at the Government Complex Seoul in central on Sept. 30. [NEWS1]

A former wartime sexual slavery victim on Wednesday appealed to the Korean government to demand an apology and compensation from the Japanese government over its military's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.

Lee Yong-soo, the 97-year-old victim of the Japanese military's sexual slavery, made the plea during the 1,720th weekly Wednesday rally held near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to demand Tokyo's formal apology to former sex slaves, euphemistically referred to as “comfort women.”

“As long as Japan has not apologized and provided compensation, shouldn't our government take action and enforce it quickly? I'm almost 100 years old, but isn't our government hoping all the grandmothers [former comfort women] will die?” Lee said.

“Only then can we achieve complete liberation,” she said with a lump in her throat.

At the rally, many participants expressed criticism toward the Lee Jae Myung government, saying that there was no clear mention of past issues during his summit talks with outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Busan on Tuesday.

Yonhap