South Korean women forced into wartime sexual slavery held their 1,000th weekly protest outside Japan’s embassy yesterday, demanding compensation and an apology from Tokyo as they have since 1992.
“Apologize!” shouted five women in their 80s or 90s and an estimated 500 supporters, waving banners reading “Compensate” and “Admit the war crime.”
Demonstrators campaigning to publicize World War II crimes braved near-freezing temperatures to unveil a “peace monument” across the street from the mission, despite protests from the Japanese government over the statue.
Photo: AFP
The five former sex slaves known euphemistically as “comfort women” hugged the replica of a teenage Korean girl in traditional costume.
“Young girls were dragged to other countries as slaves of the Japanese military,” said a frail Kim Bok-dong, 85. “I demand that the ambassador of Japan tell the Japanese government to apologize before we all die.”
The oldest of the Korean former “comfort women” died earlier this month aged 94 and another aged 87 died on Tuesday, leaving just 63 survivors out of 234 who had registered with the Seoul government.
In a rare move, a North Korean association for former comfort women sent a letter of support.
“The Wednesday demonstration that has lasted for 20 years is an unbearable blaze of anger against sexual slavery crimes committed by Japan that have trampled on national pride,” the group said in a faxed message.
Historians say that during World War II, about 200,000 women from Taiwan, Korea, China, the Philippines and other countries were drafted to work in Japanese military brothels.
The issue came to widespread notice in the early 1990s after some victims found the courage to go public.
Japan has apologized for the military’s crimes against the women, but denies official responsibility for running the brothels. It has rejected South Korea’s proposal of bilateral talks about the women’s demands.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it was inexcusable that the issue was still not settled.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS