A surviving Korean comfort woman to speak at the U.N. headquarters

Lee Yong-soo (photo), one of surviving comfort women for Japanese soldiers under the colonial rule, will have a press conference to global media at the U.N. headquarters in New York on International Women’s Day, which falls on Tuesday (local time).

The United Nations Correspondents Association said on Saturday, “Lee Yong-soo, a surviving comfort woman, will have a press conference at the UNCA office at 2:30 on Tuesday to express her opinion on the agreement on comfort women between the Korean and Japanese governments last year.” U.N. sources said that though North Korean defectors’ testimonials or press conferences on North Korean human rights situation have been held a few times at the U.N. headquarters, it is very rare that a former comfort woman hold a press conference in person.

Lee’s invitation to the U.N. press conference was led by the Korean American Civic Empowerment for Community, a group based in New York and New Jersey, which has led the comfort women issue in the U.S., and the Korean American Forum of California. “The U.N. will host various women’s human rights events from International Women’s Day,” a source from the organization said. “It is a sort of a preemptive action to the Japanese government, which claims that Japan has made a lot of efforts to empower women while ignoring or misleading the comfort women issue.”

After the agreement on comfort women between Korea and Japan, the Japanese government submitted an official document to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that no evidence was found that the women were not compelled to serve as sex slaves. With respect to this, the 88-year-old Lee will refute the claim, saying, “I am the surviving witness who was compelled to do so.”

When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the U.S. in April last year, Lee followed the prime minister during his entire schedule including his speech at Harvard University, drawing global attention.

“As the Korean and Japanese governments agreed to refrain from blaming each other in the international community, the tensions between the two governments are unlikely to escalate in the official U.N. meetings on women’s human rights compared to the past,” a U.N. source said. “Instead, the confrontation between the two countries’ civic groups would be strong outside the venue.”

뉴욕=부형권특파원 bookum90@donga.com