N. Korea Reports Existence of Wartime Comfort Women Brothel

August 15, 2018

Seoul- A North Korean panel on so-called comfort women has confirmed the existence of a brothel of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese military in a northern area of the Korean Peninsula, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency.

The brothel existed under the rule of Japan in North Hamgyong Province, now in the city of Rason, according to a report compiled by the panel. Comfort women, mostly Koreans, were forced to serve Japanese troops sexually before and during World War II.

The panel report said it will thoroughly pursue the responsibility of Japan for its past deeds and get compensation a hundred or a thousand times over for the misery, pain and damage inflicted by the country.

In response to requests from the Japanese government to resolve the issue of abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea, Pyongyang has repeatedly demanded compensation for Japan's past actions.

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated his determination to hold a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"In the end, I must hold dialogue with Kim and resolve the issues of nuclear programs, missiles and, most importantly, North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals, in order to build a new bilateral relationship," Abe said.

The release of the North Korean report is believed to be a strategic response to Abe's comment on a summit.

The panel claimed that it has confirmed the existence of the brothel from an account by a Japanese woman in her 90s who lived in the Korean Peninsula at the time and returned to Japan after the end of the war in 1945, as well as by on-site inspections.

The report said that the brothel existed in 1937 or 1938 at the latest and women from 17 to 20 in southern areas were in captivity there. It also said doctors of the Japanese military visited the brothel for health checks. Jiji Press