| A shelter for Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery during the World War II in Mapo District, Seoul. Korea Times file |
A shelter for surviving victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery is set to be closed after the last resident recently left the facility, the operator said Saturday.
Gil Won-ok, 92, left the shelter June 11 to stay at a church operated by her 61-year-old stepson, priest Hwang Sun-hee, according to the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance (Korea Council), the nongovernmental organization working for South Korea's "comfort women," that is currently mired in an alleged embezzlement scandal
The Korea Council said it has yet to decide when to close the shelter in Mapo District, western Seoul, and return it to the Myungsung Church, which owns the property.
The planned shutdown comes as the head of the shelter was found dead at her apartment in Paju, north of Seoul, early last month.
The death comes amid the on-going controversy at the Korea Council, sparked by a prominent victim's allegation in May that Rep. Yoon Mee-hyang, the former leader of the group, misused donations and exploited the victims for her own political ambitions and gain.
Comfort women is a euphemism for victims forced to work in Japanese front-line brothels during World War II when Korea was a Japanese colony.
There are currently 17 surviving South Koreans victims of the wartime sex slavery. Historians say that around 200,000 women, mostly Koreans and other Asians, were forcibly sent to the brothels to provide sexual services for Japanese soldiers. (Yonhap)