Comfort Woman Passes

[Anchor Lead]

Japan's Ambassador to Korea Yasumasa Nagamine has returned to his post after nearly three months in Japan in protest of a "comfort woman" statue in Busan. As soon as he came back he again advocated for the removal of the statue. Meanwhile, Lee Sun-deok, the oldest among the surviving Korean victims of Japanese wartime sexual slavery, died at age 99.

[Pkg]

Lee Sun-deok, who was taken to the Japanese army's sex slavery camp at age 16 in 1932, died yesterday at the age of 99. Lee was the one who gathered other victims of sexual slavery and started a legal battle in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1992. She became the first so-called comfort woman to receive a compensation ruling for her suffering. When a pact on sexual slavery victims was concluded between Korea and Japan in Decmeber 2015, Lee even sued the Korean government for causing emotional and material damage. She was the oldest among the surviving victims of the Japanese military's sexual slavery. She was called "Camellia Grandma" for resembling the noble camellia flowers, which stay abloom even in winter. Mourners continued all night long to pay their condolences at her wake. A memorial service is planned for this evening at 7 p.m. with surviving comfort women in attendance. With the passing of Lee Sun-deok, only 38 out of the 238 sexual slavery victims registered with the government remain living.