Two former sex slaves die

By Kim Rahn

Two women forced into sex slavery before and during World War II died of old age, Tuesday, according to the government.

Lee Su-dan, who lived in China, died at a nursing home in Heilongjiang Province at around 3 p.m. She was 95.

The former Pyongyang resident became a sex slave after responding to a false advertisement ostensibly seeking to recruit craftswomen in Harbin, China.

She was forced to work at a military brothel in a Chinese border city near Maritime Province of Siberia. The soldiers abandoned Lee and other sex slaves there after the war finished, so those women could not return to their home countries.

Lee managed to get in touch with her family in Pyongyang but lost contact in 1973. Having lived in China for nearly 70 years, she almost entirely forgot the Korean language.

An activist supporting the former sex slaves learned about Lee and several other women there in 1998. Lee regained her Korean nationality in 2005, but could not come to Korea due to poor health conditions brought on by old age.

Another former sex slave, Kong Jeom-yeop, who lived in Haenam, South Jeolla Province, died at around 5 p.m. She was 96.

Kong had been hospitalized for more than a year after having a stroke.

She was forced into sex slavery in 1935 when she was 16 years old, continuing until 1943.

With the two deaths, now there remain only 42 surviving victims.

Last December, the Korean and Japanese governments agreed to set up a foundation to support the victims, but no progress has been made yet.