Former South Korean "comfort women" Lee Ok-sun and Gil Won-ok attend a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, Nov 13, 2019. (KIM HONG-JI / REUTERS)
SEOUL – Another South Korean victim of sex slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II has passed away, leaving the living victims at 10, an advocacy group for the victims said on Tuesday.
Lee Ok-sun died of natural causes on Monday night at the age of 94, the House of Sharing said on its website.
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With her death, the living "comfort women" victims fell to 10 in South Korea, mostly in their 90s. "Comfort women" refer to girls and women kidnapped or forced into sex enslavement for Imperial Japan's military brothels before and during World War II.
In August 2013, Lee filed a lawsuit with other victims to seek reparations from the Japanese government
Lee was taken to the so-called "comfort station" in then Japan-occupied Manchuria, Northeast China, at the age of 16 and served as a sex slave at an Imperial Japan's military brothel until she returned home upon the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Imperial Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.
In August 2013, Lee filed a lawsuit with other victims to seek reparations from the Japanese government. The Seoul Central District Court ordered Japan to pay 100 million won ($78,940) to each plaintiff in January 2021.
According to historians, at least 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were deceivably or forcibly sent to the "comfort stations" of the Japanese Imperial Army in Japan, China, Southeast Asia and islands of the South Pacific.
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A total of 240 South Korean women have identified themselves as former sex slaves.
The sex slavery victims and civic group activists have held a rally every Wednesday in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul since Jan 8, 1992, calling for an apology and reparation from the Japanese government.