South Korean slavery victim seeks U.N. justice as time runs out
SEOUL, South Korea — Thirty years after going public with her story of abduction, rape and forced prostitution by Japan's wartime military, Lee Yong-soo fears she's running out of time to get closure to her ordeal.
The 93-year-old is the face of a dwindling group of South Korean sexual slavery survivors who have been demanding since the early 1990s that the Japanese government fully accept culpability and offer an unequivocal apology.
Her latest – and possibly final – push is to persuade the governments of South Korea and Japan to settle their decades-long impasse over sexual slavery by seeking judgement of the United Nations.
Lee leads an international group of sexual slavery survivors and advocates – including those from to press Seoul and Tokyo to jointly refer the issue to U.N.'s International Court of Justice. The group wants Seoul to initiate arbitration proceedings against Japan with a U.N. panel on torture if Tokyo doesn't agree to bring the case to the ICJ.
