In this file photo dated Nov 13, 2019, South Korean victims of forced sex slavery in Japan's military brothels during World War II leave the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea. (PHOTO / AP)
SEOUL – A South Korean victim of forced sex slavery in Japan's military brothels during World War II died this week, and the number of surviving victims is reduced to nine, South Korea's gender ministry said on Wednesday.
The victim, whose identification was not made public at the request of the bereaved family, passed away on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.
The death left only nine such victims alive in the country, out of the 240 officially registered with the South Korean government as former wartime sex slaves.
The average age of the surviving victims was 94.4 years, with eight people aged between 90 and 95 and one person aged 96 or higher.
The Korean Peninsula was colonized by the Imperial Japan from 1910 to 1945.
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Historians say 400,000 Asian women, mostly from China and the Korean Peninsula, were coerced, duped or kidnapped into sex slavery at Japanese military brothels before and during the Pacific War.