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Korean activist stages comfort women protest at Japanese embassy in Seoul

Protester Oh Sung-taek, left, runs away from a police officer after climbing over the walls of the Japanese embassy compound in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. PHOTO: AP

A South Korean activist scaled a wall of the Japanese embassy in Seoul yesterday, and staged a brief protest atop an embassy building against Japan's denial of responsibility for forcing women to work as sex slaves during World War II.

Oh Sung-taek, a member of a vocal civic group, stomped on a Japanese flag and shouted anti-Japanese slogans for 10 minutes before he was removed by police, according to witnesses and a police officer.

Placard

He wore a placard with a picture of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that read: "Destroy History Distortion."

Police could not immediately enter the embassy to detain Oh because they needed permission from the embassy, the officer said on customary condition of anonymity.

Oh was among 100 protesters gathered outside the embassy for a rally that has been held every Wednesday since 1992 to demand that Japan apologize and compensate World War II sex slaves -- who were also called "comfort women" -- for Japanese troops.

"Japan who forgets her past cannot create a peaceful future," read a banner held by one protester.

The turnout was larger than usual because Japan recently insisted there was no evidence its military or government forced women to work in World War II military brothels.

Last Friday, Japan's Cabinet issued a formal statement that no such proof existed, repeating a similar claim by Abe. The declaration was seen as a slap in the face of Asian nations already outraged over Abe's remarks.

Brothels

Historians say that about 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and China, served in Japanese military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s.

Many victims say they were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.

Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910 to 1945 before it was divided into the South and North. Many Koreans still harbor resentment toward Japan's occupation.
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