South Korea invites ex-comfort woman to banquet with Trump

November 8, 2017

Seoul- The South Korean government invited Lee Yong-soo, who was forced into prostitution for Japanese troops during wartime, to Tuesday's banquet to welcome U.S. President Donald Trump as a state guest. Trump greeted, shook hands with and embraced Lee at the banquet, according to South Korean media.

Lee is active in testifying about her experience of being a so-called comfort woman and calling for the comfort women accord reached between Japan and South Korea in December 2015 to be canceled.

By inviting Lee to the banquet, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is critical of the Japan-South Korea agreement, apparently aims to attract attention to the issue of comfort women and other issues related to bilateral history in an effort to reduce the U.S. government's support for the accord.

Lee is said to be a model of the main character of "I Can Speak," a South Korean movie featuring a former comfort woman who studies English so she can testify before the U.S. Congress.

An official of the South Korean president's office cited history issues between Japan and South Korea, two of the designations of Trump's current Asian trip, as a reason for the invitation of Lee.

Lee testified about former comfort women at a U.S. House subcommittee in February 2007. She attended a speech by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the U.S. Congress in April 2015.

Criticizing the Japan-South Korea agreement on solving the comfort women issue for its lack of an official apology and legal compensation by the Japanese government, Lee has refused to accept the accord.

Moon has complained about the accord, while expressing his intention of making Japan-South Korea relations future-oriented. Moon sees the agreement as emotionally unacceptable for many South Korean people and having been reached without the consent of former comfort women.

Moon invited Lee and other former comfort women to his speech delivered on Aug. 15 this year, the day that marked the liberation of the Korean Peninsula from Japan's colonial rule following its surrender in World War II.

Last month, UNESCO postponed a decision on whether to add documents related to former comfort women to its Memory of the World Register.

A civil group supporting such women in South Korea has intensified its criticism of the Moon administration, accusing it of being diplomatically weak. The president faces a need to demonstrate his stance of making active efforts on the comfort women issue. Jiji Press