Another S. Korean former sex slave dies, reducing total surviving victims to 16

SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Yonhap) -- Another South Korean woman forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War II died Saturday, a civic group said, reducing to 16 the total number of the country's registered surviving victims. Lee Mak-dal died in Busan at the age of 97, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance, a nongovernmental organization working for the comfort women, said Sunday. Born in 1923 in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, Lee was forced to serve at a Japanese military brothel in Taiwan when she was only 17, according to the group. Korea was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. Lee settled in Busan after the Korean liberation from Japan and formally reported herself to the government as a wartime sex slavery victim in 2005. She has actively taken part in street rallies and other activities to shed light on Tokyo's wartime atrocities and demand its sincere apology. Her funeral will be held privately in accordance with the wishes of her and her bereaved family, the council said. Her death brought the number of surviving victims, euphemistically called "comfort women," to 16. Historians estimate that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were forced to work in front-line brothels for Japanese troops during the war. (END)