Chung Eui-yong to Meet the Elderly Lee Yong-soo Tomorrow: Lee, "Urge the Government to Refer Comfort Women Case to the ICJ"

Kim Yoo-jin 입력 2021. 3. 2. 16:57
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[경향신문]

Lee Yong-soo, an elderly victim of the “comfort women” in the Japanese military, greets the press ahead of a press conference urging for the government to refer the case of sexual slavery in the Japanese military to the UN International Court of Justice at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul on February 16. Yonhap News

On March 3, Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong will meet Lee Yong-soo, an elderly victim of “comfort women” in the Japanese military. This will be the first time that Chung will personally meet with a comfort women victim since his appointment as foreign minister, and the two are expected to discuss the latest court ruling on compensation for comfort women and the issue of referring the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

According to sources, Lee will visit the foreign ministry office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of March 3 and meet with Minister Chung. Reportedly, officials from the Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau and the International Legal Affairs Bureau, which oversees bilateral relations with Japan and affairs concerning the International Court of Justice respectively, will take part during Lee’s meeting with the foreign minister. The ministry had been working on a way for Minister Chung, who entered office last month, to personally meet with the surviving comfort women victims and listen to their opinions on resolving the comfort women issue and explain the government’s willingness to resolve the problem.

Lee is expected to ask the foreign minister for efforts from the government to have the Japanese government sincerely apologize and reflect on the issue of the comfort women. In particular, she is expected to ask the foreign ministry, which handles affairs concerning the International Court of Justice, to refer the comfort women issue to the international court for a judgment. A representative of a group of people working to refer the issue of sexual slavery in the Japanese military to the International Court of Justice said, “Our group, led by Ms. Lee will present a draft agreement to refer the case to the ICJ.”

On February 16, Lee held a press conference and said, “I ask the government of the Republic of Korea to seek a solution based on international law by referring this case to the International Court of Justice, the judicial organization of the United Nations, for a solution centered on the comfort women victims.”

On March 1, which marked the 102nd anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement, Lee attended a luncheon with Chung Young-ai, minister of gender equality and family, and discussed the direction of a project remembering the comfort women victims.

The previous foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha had also visited the House of Sharing in Gwangju, Gyeonggi shortly after entering office and met with the elderly Lee Yong-soo. On February 1, before stepping down, Minister Kang made a personal visit to the house of the elderly Park Pil-geun, who lives in Pohang.

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