hankyoreh

Lee Yong-soo holds up a letter to President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol while standing in front of an exhibit of photos of Korean survivors of the “comfort women” system at the Museum of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan in Deagu’s Jung District on April 13. (Park Go-eun/The Hankyoreh)

“You knew it was spring and came to visit. My own spring passed so quickly…”

As she spoke, Lee Yong-soo looked at the lilacs blooming in the backyard of the Museum of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan in central Daegu’s Jung District, where she spoke with the Hankyoreh on Monday.

“I don’t want to face any more bitter springs,” said the 94-year-old survivor of the Japanese military’s “comfort women” system, as she shared a letter that she had written to South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol.

In her letter, she urged the incoming administration to take active steps to resolve the so-called “comfort women” issue, while voicing her opposition to Yoon’s plan for abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF).

“I, Lee Yong-soo, have been dedicating my heart and soul to resolving the Japanese military comfort women issue,” she wrote. “Help us, Mr. President-elect! [. . .] Please keep your promise.”

On Sept. 11 of last year, Lee met at the same location with Yoon, who was then running in the People Power Party presidential primary.

“You promised me that you would resolve the comfort women issue even if you did not become president, that you would make sure to get an apology from Japan,” she recalled.

“You have no idea how comforting that was to hear. Now that you have become the president, I am certain that you will keep your promise,” she continued.

Lee also shared her objections to Yoon’s pledge to abolish the MOGEF.

“The MOGEF needs to be there,” she wrote, explaining that the ministry had “tended so well to the sorrows that the 12 surviving [former comfort women] have suffered over the years.”

In a February meeting with People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok, Lee Yong-soo asked that the MOGEF abolition pledge be walked back.

“Without the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, we would be dead,” she said at the time. Lee Jun-seok held firm on the ministry’s abolition, saying it had been a “decision made by Yoon Suk-yeol.”

Describing the MOGEF as being “like family,” Lee Yong-soo said, “It’s the only one [of the Cabinet ministries] that the survivors can turn to.”

“We’ve been contacted regularly, not only by staff but by the minister. The mere fact that they have not forgotten and that they continue to pay attention to us has been a great source of strength in our lives.”

Additionally, the MOGEF provided various other benefits to support the livelihood and stability of comfort women system survivors in accordance with the Act on Livelihood Stability and Commemorative Projects, etc. for Sexual Slavery Victims Drafted for the Japanese Imperial Army Under the Japanese Colonial Rule. These include livelihood stability support funds, nursing costs, funeral service expenses, livelihood benefits according to the National Basic Living Security Act, and medical costs according to the Medical Care Assistance Act.

Lee Yong-soo’s handwritten letter to President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol (Kim Jung-hyo/The Hankyoreh)

Lee also criticized past administrations for their failure to resolve the military sexual slavery issue. Commenting on an intergovernmental agreement reached with Japan on the issue under the Park Geun-hye administration in December 2015, she stressed that this was “unacceptable” and “must be abandoned.”

Current President Moon Jae-in has consistently criticized the comfort women agreement since taking office, but has not attempted to renegotiate it.

Remarking on the Moon administration’s attitude, Lee said, “I thought they would solve things, but they have been exactly the same [as past administrations].”

“I would like to see them explain themselves,” she added.

Yoon has yet to state any official position on the 2015 South Korea-Japan comfort women deal. In January, a network of Japanese military “comfort women” victim support groups sent policy questionnaires about the agreement to presidential candidates from six different parties, but Yoon declined to reply.

Lee said she is pinning her “last hopes” on the incoming administration.

She pleaded for Yoon to “invalidate the South Korea-Japan comfort women agreement and convince Japan to issue a sincere apology.”

“I would like to believe that the new president will be different,” she said.

“My final wish is to be able to tell the other [victims] who passed away before me that the ‘new ‘president has resolved things.’”

By Park Go-eun, staff reporter

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