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Summary South Korean women forced into wartime sexual slavery held their 1,000th weekly protest.
It was held outside Japans embassy Wednesday, demanding compensation and an apology from Tokyo as they have since 1992.Apologise shouted five women in their 80s or 90s and an estimated 500 supporters, waving banners reading Compensate and Admit the war crime.Demonstrators campaigning to publicise World War II crimes braved near-freezing temperatures to unveil a peace monument across the street from the mission, despite protests from the Japanese government.The five former sex slaves known euphemistically as comfort women hugged the statue of a teenage Korean girl in traditional costume.One of them urged the Seoul government and Japans envoy to demand that Tokyo officially apologise to them and pay compensation.Young girls were dragged to other countries as slaves of the Japanese military, said a frail Kim Bok-Dong, 85. I demand that the ambassador of Japan tell the Japanese government to apologise before we all die.The oldest of the former comfort women died aged 94 earlier this month and another aged 87 died Tuesday, leaving just 63 survivors out of 234 who had registered with the Seoul government.In a rare move, a North Korean association for former comfort women sent a letter of support to their South Korean counterparts.The Wednesday Demonstration that has lasted for 20 years is an unbearable blaze of anger against sexual slavery crimes committed by Japan that have trampled on national pride, the group said in a faxed message.Historians say that during World War II, about 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and other countries were drafted to work in Japanese military brothels.Japan has apologised for the militarys crimes against the women but denies official involvement in running the brothels. It has rejected South Koreas proposal to hold bilateral talks on the womens demands.South Koreas foreign ministry said Tuesday it was inexcusable the issue was still unsettled.It will be the 1,000th protest tomorrow but we find it very disappointing that the Japanese government has not reacted to this issue, said spokesman Cho Byung-Jae.Tokyo, which colonised Korea from 1910-45, says all potential individual claims for wartime suffering were dealt with through treaties normalising ties with other Asian countries.On Wednesday it called for the statue to be removed.It is very regrettable that they went ahead with constructing the comfort woman statue, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura in Tokyo.We repeatedly called on the South Korean government to stop the construction until today. We will make a request (for removal) to the South Korean government through diplomatic channels.
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