30 years after her story was made public, Lee Yong-soo, who was abducted, raped and forced into prostitution by the Japanese military during the war, seems to be lagging behind in the race for justice. Lee, 93, is the face of sex-slavery South Korean women who have been demanding since the early 1990s that the Japanese government acknowledge the guilt of its wartime military and tender an unconditional apology.
Lee’s latest attempt is to pressure South Korea and Japan to take a UN-mediated decision so that they can get justice. Lee is leading an international group of sexual slavery victims and activists who last week sent a petition to United Nations (UN) human rights investigators asking them to jointly investigate the case in Seoul and Tokyo. Urgently pressurize him to be taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The group includes victims from the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Australia and East Timor. The group wants Seoul to initiate arbitration proceedings, with a UN panel, in a torture case handed down by the Japanese military if Tokyo does not agree to take the matter to the ICJ.
However, it is not clear at the moment whether South Korea, where a new government will be sworn in in May, will consider bringing the matter to the United Nations at a time when it is facing pressure to improve relations with other countries, including Japan. .