No former comfort women receive apologies: group

February 12, 2019

Seoul--A South Korean group opposing the 2015 Tokyo-Seoul agreement on resolving the issue of former comfort women accused the Japanese government on Monday of claiming that it has offered sincere apologies to them despite the lack of victims who have received such apologies.

The group countered an explanation by Takeshi Osuga, press secretary for Japan's Foreign Ministry, in a letter to the editor contributed to The New York Times last week.

In the letter regarding the death of former South Korean comfort woman Kim Bok-dong, Osuga said, "Japan has extended its sincere apologies and remorse to former comfort women on many occasions."

Kim was one of those women who were forced to work as prostitutes for Japanese troops before and during World War II. Jiji Press