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Yoon Mi-hyang, president of the newly formed Justice and Memory Coalition for Resolving the Issue of Sex Slaves for the Japanese Army, calls for the South Korean government to issue an official apology to the Vietnamese government and people for the execution of civilians and sexual violence perpetrated by South Korean forces during the Vietnam War on Sept. 14, 2017, at the Vietnamese Embassy in Seoul. (Kim Jung-hyo, staff photographer)
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Organization will focus on supporting comfort women and providing educational scholarships
The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Jeongdaehyeop) and the Justice and Memory Foundation for Resolving the Issue of Sex Slaves for the Japanese Army will now be operated as a single legal entity. The first person to chair the new entity’s board is Yoon Mi-hyang, who was previously president of Jeongdaehyeop. Following their combination, the two organizations were officially launched under the name of the Justice and Memory Coalition for Resolving the Issue of Sex Slaves for the Japanese Army. “Our organization name will be abbreviated as ‘Jeonguiyeon,’ and Jeongdaehyeop President Yoon Mi-hyang was elected as chairwoman in the first board meeting on July 11,” a spokesperson for the organization said on July 16. The newly launched organization plans to concentrate on two kinds of projects; first, supporting the rights and repairing the reputations of those forced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese army (known as the “comfort women”), and second, providing scholarships and education to the upcoming generation. “Considering that many of the surviving comfort women are passing away, we decided to combine the organizations with the conviction that we need to expand into a movement for women’s rights so that the next generation can take up the torch,” said a spokesperson for Jeonguiyeon. Since it was launched in 1990 with the backing of 37 South Korean women’s organizations, Jeongdaehyeop has carried out educational projects and fact-finding missions with the goal of resolving the comfort women issue. The Justice and Memory Foundation was established with over 1 billion won (US$889,570) raised by more than 400 organizations and ordinary people in protest of the comfort women agreement reached by Seoul and Tokyo in 2015. Over the past two years, the foundation has provided welfare to the former comfort women and built and advertised comfort women statues. “Jeonguiyeon will work to achieve justice for the former comfort women and to eradicate the crime of sexual violence in wartime,” Yoon said. By Hwang Geum-bi, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
