U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will hold a meeting this week with an elderly South Korean victim of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, an activist group for victims said Thursday.
The 89-year-old victim, Kil Won-ok, plans to visit Ban at the U.N. headquarters on Friday, the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan said.
The meeting will mark the first time that Ban has met with a sexual slavery victim as U.N. chief.
During the meeting, Kil is expected to voice her opposition to the landmark agreement between South Korea and Japan on resolving the sexual slavery issue, and demand Japan offer an official apology and compensation for her suffering.
She also plans to deliver a joint petition from victims.
Critics have denounced the December deal for failing to take victims’ positions into consideration.
They’ve also criticized Ban for welcoming the agreement that centers on Japan’s admission of responsibility for the crime and plans to pay reparations to the victims. South Korea promised to end the dispute once and for all if Japan fulfills its responsibilities.
The deal offered hope for progress in relations between the two countries long marred by the issue.
Historians estimate that up to 200,000 women, mainly from Korea, which was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945, were forced to work in front-line brothels for Japanese soldiers during World War II. Japan has long attempted to water down the atrocity. (Yonhap)
