[Yonhap News Photo]
South Korea will officially designate a national memorial day for "comfort women" sexually enslaved by Japan's imperial army amid growing jitters in Tokyo at Seoul's tough stance over one of their most sensitive diplomatic issues.
The Seoul government said it has endorsed a proposal by the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee, a presidential advisory panel, to designate August 14 as an official remembrance day for the victims of wartime sexual slavery.
On August 14, 1991, Kim Hak-sun made her first public testimony that she was forced to serve as a comfort woman at Japanese military brothels. International Memorial Day for Comfort Women, introduced in 2013, falls on August 14, a day before the Korean peninsula was liberated from Japan's colonial rule from 1910-45.
South Korea also plans to launch a research institute on comfort women by 2019 and build a museum by 2020. Gender Equality Minister Chung Huyn-back said earlier that the museum would be built near the center of Seoul so that it could become a "mecca" for future generations to remember and recall Japan's past wrongdoing.
Historians estimate that up to 200,000 women mostly from Korea were forced to work in front-line brothels for Japanese troops. Many South Koreans still harbor deep resentment against Japan over its colonial rule, and they want Tokyo's sincere apology.
Under a 2015 deal, Japan agreed to donate one billion yen ($9 million) to a foundation dedicated to supporting comfort women. In return, Tokyo urged Seoul to tear down the "comfort woman" statues erected by civic groups outside Japanese legations. President Moon Jae-in has hinted at a possible renegotiation of the deal, saying many Koreans do not endorse it.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
임장원
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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