UN Chief Meets With Japan’s Wartime Sex Slave

Japan “expressed apology” to South Korea last December over wartime sex slavery

UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon and his wife with one of the Japan’s wartime comfort women. (Photo: Twitter)

The United Nations Secretary-General has met with one of the less than 50 surviving victims of Japan’s wartime military-run brothel system known as “comfort women.”

Ban Ki-moon met Friday with Gil Won-ok and Yoon Mee-Hyang, who is co-chair of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

An agreement in December between South Korea and Japan included an indirect apology from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a Japanese pledge to provide 1 billion yen ($8 million) to a fund for the South Korean victims.

Moon, who is South Korean, said in a statement that it “is crucial that the voices of victims and survivors are heard.”

Only 46 of tens of thousands of women submitted to sexual slavery are still alive today.

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Japan “Expresses Apology” to South Korea Over Wartime Sex Slavery