hankyoreh

Lee Yong-soo, a survivor of the Japanese military’s “comfort women” system of sexual slavery, speaks to the press after a meeting with Fabian Salvioli, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, at the office of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in downtown Seoul on June 9, 2022. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

Lee Yong-soo, a survivor of the “comfort women” system of sexual slavery by the Japanese military, criticized President Yoon Suk-yeol’s National Liberation Day speech, asking, “How can [Yoon] only talk about improving ties with Japan on Liberation Day without any mention of unresolved historical issues and the ‘comfort women’ issue?”

On Monday, Lee released a statement via a commission advocating for the “comfort women” issue to be tried at the International Court of Justice, which read, “How can pleasing Japan be more important when Japan distorts history and tramples on our honor? How is that respecting freedom, human rights, and rule of law?”

Lee serves as the chairperson of the commission.

She went on, “For us [‘comfort women’ survivors], liberation has yet to come,” requesting Yoon to refer the “comfort women” issue to the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT). She continued, “If Japan doesn’t have the will to properly solve the ‘comfort women’ issue on its own, our government should unilaterally submit the ‘comfort women’ issue to the UN CAT for sake of the survivors’ honor.”

“Wouldn’t this serve universal values you spoke of today, such as freedom, human rights and rule of law? This is the only way to awaken shameless Japan to reality and create reconciliation and coexistence of the future moving forward,” she added.

By Lee Woo-yun, staff reporter

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