By Yi Whan-woo
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will meet a Korean sex slavery victim of World War II in New York, Saturday (KST), according to an advocacy group for the victims, known as "comfort women."
The meeting comes after a U.N. panel looking into what the Japanese military did to the Korean women during the colonial era concluded Monday that the landmark Dec. 28 agreement between the governments of South Korea and Japan failed to tackle the complaints of the survivors. They agreed to resolve the decades-long issue in a "final and irrevocable" manner.
Following the deal, Ban lauded the governments of the two countries, drawing protests from victims and human rights activists.
The advocacy group, the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, said the U.N. chief has accepted a request from survivor Kil Won-ok, 89, for a private meeting.
"This is a protest visit by Kil, who represents the surviving Korean comfort women," a council official said. "She will also convey her wish for the U.N. to conduct a thorough and fair investigation into what happened to the women during WWII."
It is the first time Ban will meet a comfort woman.
A day after the Seoul-Tokyo accord, Ban praised President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for what they did to improve bilateral ties.
Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, immediately drew criticism from the council, and the elderly Korean survivors who were forced into prostitution at military brothels run by the Japanese Army before and during World War II.
The case took a new twist Monday when the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination said in a report that Japan is still responsible for making an apology and providing compensation to the surviving victims. It also concluded that the Dec. 28 agreement failed because it did not "fully adopt a victim-centered approach."
"Under such circumstance, Kil insisted on meeting Ban before she arrived in the United States, Tuesday," an official from the Seoul-based council said.
"She has made it clear that she can't accept the Seoul-Tokyo deal and that the Japanese government must offer a sincere apology and address its legal responsibilities over its past."
The official said Kil also planned to deliver to Ban a petition jointly signed by the surviving comfort women.
Kil is one of the 45 remaining Korean survivors who are mostly in their late 80s. She is being accompanied by Yoon Mi-hyang, the council president, on her U.S. trip.
Korean officials have remained low key over the protest against the Dec. 28 agreement, in which Seoul and Tokyo promised to refrain from blaming each other over the comfort women issue.
One of the officials is Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, who struck the bilateral deal with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida.
Yun did not mention anything about Japan's wartime sex slavery in his U.N. Human Rights Council speech on March 2 while addressing Korea's efforts to prevent sexual violence against women worldwide.
Meanwhile, the U.N. committee has asked Japan to ensure that its leaders and public officials "desist from making disparaging statements regarding responsibility."
Koreans accounted for most of an estimated 200,000 comfort women.
Other victims were from China, Taiwan, Indonesia and other South East Asian countries occupied by Japan, as well as some from Europe, mostly Dutch.
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| Ban Ki-moon |
The meeting comes after a U.N. panel looking into what the Japanese military did to the Korean women during the colonial era concluded Monday that the landmark Dec. 28 agreement between the governments of South Korea and Japan failed to tackle the complaints of the survivors. They agreed to resolve the decades-long issue in a "final and irrevocable" manner.
Following the deal, Ban lauded the governments of the two countries, drawing protests from victims and human rights activists.
The advocacy group, the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, said the U.N. chief has accepted a request from survivor Kil Won-ok, 89, for a private meeting.
"This is a protest visit by Kil, who represents the surviving Korean comfort women," a council official said. "She will also convey her wish for the U.N. to conduct a thorough and fair investigation into what happened to the women during WWII."
It is the first time Ban will meet a comfort woman.
A day after the Seoul-Tokyo accord, Ban praised President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for what they did to improve bilateral ties.
Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, immediately drew criticism from the council, and the elderly Korean survivors who were forced into prostitution at military brothels run by the Japanese Army before and during World War II.
The case took a new twist Monday when the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination said in a report that Japan is still responsible for making an apology and providing compensation to the surviving victims. It also concluded that the Dec. 28 agreement failed because it did not "fully adopt a victim-centered approach."
"Under such circumstance, Kil insisted on meeting Ban before she arrived in the United States, Tuesday," an official from the Seoul-based council said.
"She has made it clear that she can't accept the Seoul-Tokyo deal and that the Japanese government must offer a sincere apology and address its legal responsibilities over its past."
The official said Kil also planned to deliver to Ban a petition jointly signed by the surviving comfort women.
Kil is one of the 45 remaining Korean survivors who are mostly in their late 80s. She is being accompanied by Yoon Mi-hyang, the council president, on her U.S. trip.
Korean officials have remained low key over the protest against the Dec. 28 agreement, in which Seoul and Tokyo promised to refrain from blaming each other over the comfort women issue.
One of the officials is Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, who struck the bilateral deal with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida.
Yun did not mention anything about Japan's wartime sex slavery in his U.N. Human Rights Council speech on March 2 while addressing Korea's efforts to prevent sexual violence against women worldwide.
Meanwhile, the U.N. committee has asked Japan to ensure that its leaders and public officials "desist from making disparaging statements regarding responsibility."
Koreans accounted for most of an estimated 200,000 comfort women.
Other victims were from China, Taiwan, Indonesia and other South East Asian countries occupied by Japan, as well as some from Europe, mostly Dutch.
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