South Korean minister tells UN panel "sexual slavery" issue unresolved

The South Korean gender equality and family minister said in a speech Monday at the United Nations that the issue of "comfort women," the term used to describe women forced into brothels for Japanese soldiers during World War II, is still unresolved, although she did not name any country in her remarks.

"The issue of sexual slavery during the Second World War known as 'comfort women' has yet to be resolved," Kim Hee Jung, who is in charge of measures to care for aging former Korean comfort women, told an annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women.

"Necessary measures should be taken with full accountability for past wrongdoing," she said, adding that "education must be provided to our next generation to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy."

Her speech followed a direct call on Japan just days earlier by South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae Yul at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to resolve the comfort women issue.

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