File Photo: South Korean former "comfort woman" Kim Bok-Dong, who was forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese troops during World War II, speaks during a press conference outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul on June 23, 2015. (AFP)
Seoul:
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights met with three ageing "comfort women" on a visit to Seoul today and promised to continue advocating on behalf of South Korean victims of Japan's wartime system of sex slavery.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein met with the three, who are among some 50 surviving South Korean "comfort women", at a museum in Seoul dedicated to the women forced into sexual slavery during World War II.
Al Hussein would "continue to advocate on their behalf", he was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency after meeting with them.
"I will of course stay in touch with them and visit them again as often as I can," he said.
About 200,000 women, mainly from Korea but also from China, Indonesia and other Asian nations, were forced into sexual slavery during the war.
South Korea says Tokyo does not fully accept its guilt and has not sufficiently atoned.
But Japan insists the issue was settled in the 1965 bilateral agreement that restored diplomatic ties between the two nations, which saw Tokyo make a total payment of $800 million in grants or loans to its former colony.
The issue has strained relations between Seoul and Tokyo for years with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye saying there can be no meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe until Japan makes amends for its "comfort women" system.
In a recent interview with the Washington Post however, Park said: "There has been considerable progress on the issue of the comfort women", adding that the two countries were "in the final stage" of negotiations.
Zeid flew to Seoul on Tuesday for a three-day trip to attend the opening ceremony of a new UN field office there to monitor human rights abuses in North Korea.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein met with the three, who are among some 50 surviving South Korean "comfort women", at a museum in Seoul dedicated to the women forced into sexual slavery during World War II.
Al Hussein would "continue to advocate on their behalf", he was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency after meeting with them.
"I will of course stay in touch with them and visit them again as often as I can," he said.
About 200,000 women, mainly from Korea but also from China, Indonesia and other Asian nations, were forced into sexual slavery during the war.
South Korea says Tokyo does not fully accept its guilt and has not sufficiently atoned.
But Japan insists the issue was settled in the 1965 bilateral agreement that restored diplomatic ties between the two nations, which saw Tokyo make a total payment of $800 million in grants or loans to its former colony.
The issue has strained relations between Seoul and Tokyo for years with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye saying there can be no meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe until Japan makes amends for its "comfort women" system.
In a recent interview with the Washington Post however, Park said: "There has been considerable progress on the issue of the comfort women", adding that the two countries were "in the final stage" of negotiations.
Zeid flew to Seoul on Tuesday for a three-day trip to attend the opening ceremony of a new UN field office there to monitor human rights abuses in North Korea.
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