eFM News

[Anchor]

A weekly Wednesday rally in Seoul held since 1992 seeking an apology from Japan for its wartime sex slavery marked the 1,400th of its kind today.

Coinciding with a national ceremony to mark International Memorial Day for Comfort Women, a number of similar events took place in and around the country to commemorate the victims.

Julie Sohn has more.

[Reporter]

Despite the sweltering heat, activists and victims gathered in front of the former Japanese Embassy in Jongno at noon as they have been doing every Wednesday for the past 27 years.

This time, surrounded by tens of thousands of supporters, including students and lawmakers, they continued to demand Tokyo offer a sincere apology to former sex slaves.

The rally coincided with "International Memorial Day for Comfort Women" designated by the government last year to commemorate the day when the late Kim Hak-sun first publicly testified about how she was forced into wartime sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.

An unveiling ceremony was also held this afternoon of a new statue symbolizing the victims near the former site of a Japanese imperial shrine on Seoul's Namsan.

Along with these events in Seoul, similar rallies took place in other countries to show global solidarity, including Japan.

A flash mob event was held today in front of the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art in Nagoya to criticize the Japanese government for closing an exhibition at the Aichi Triennale art festival of a statue symbolizing the victims earlier this month.

Julie Sohn, eFM News.■