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| The first comfort women statue was erected in front of the Japanese embassy in Susong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. / Korea Times File |
By Lee Han-soo
The first comfort women statue in Europe will be erected in Freiburg, Germany.
Yeom Tae-young, mayor of Suwonj city in Gyeonggi Province, announced the project on Monday.
Freiburg, Suwon's sister city, will erect the statue to mark International Human Rights Day on December 10.
Freiburg Mayor Dieter Salomon finalized the decision after a phone talk with Yeom on August 31.
The statue will commemorate Korean sex slaves from World War II.
Yeom suggested the statue to Saloman to commemorate the sex slaves and express both cities' desire for world peace.
"Freiburg has long campaigned for the improvement of women's rights and equality," Saloman said.
"We gladly accept Mayor Yeom's suggestion because the comfort women statue not only symbolizes freedom but also symbolizes the eradication of violence towards women."
The first comfort women statue, which symbolizes women sexually enslaved by Japanese troops during Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula, was erected in front of the Japanese embassy in Korea on December, 14, 2011.
Statues have since been erected in more than 20 places including the U.S., Canada and Australia.
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