“Removal of Comfort Woman Statue” in Berlin An Elderly Man in DPRK-Flag T-shirt Appeared...
Since June 26, 2022 (local time), the “Comfort Women Fraud Settlement Organization (the Settlement Organization),” including Joo Ok-soon, Chairman of the ROK Mama Unit, Kim Byeong-heon, President of the Korean History Textbook Research Institute, and Lee Woo-yeon, a researcher of Naksungdae Institute of Economic Research,
has been staging its expeditionary demonstrations in front of the Comfort Woman Statue in Berlin, Germany, to call for the removal of the said Statue, stating, “Comfort women are not victims of wartime sexual violence.” In the meantime, suspicion has arisen that leftists who have been to North Korea are included in a group holding rallies to oppose such demonstrations.
According to the Settlement Organization, on June 28, 2022, an elderly foreign man, wearing a T-shirt printed with a North Korean flag and the words “See you in Pyongyang,” was found among the participants opposing the demonstrations. Ms. Joo Ok-soon, on the Settlement Organization’s side, said, “There was a North Korean flag on his T-shirt,” and reported to the Jayupress that day, “A local South Korean resident has let us know that those who have been to North Korea mingle in the leftist participants on Han Jung-hwa’s side, the head of Korea Verband leading local rallies against our demonstrations.”
Ms. Joo said in an interview with the Jayupress in May 2022, “We heard of a suspicion that the Korean Council had received a budget from Seoul City to help a group linked to North Korea during Park Won-soon’s tenure as mayor. So we looked into it and found relevant cases. We have their sources as well.”
During 2022, the Settlement Organization is holding seminars and scientific congresses jointly with experts, as well as its domestic and overseas rallies. On May 12, 2022, it also had “the first comfort women issue truth-finding seminar” in Korea Press Center, under the theme “Comfort women were not subject to mobilization by a nation.”
In an interview before the above seminar, Ms. Joo said, “The coming seminar would be a highly significant one with comfort women issue-related historians gathering on a full scale,” and went on, “We have confirmed that even employers of comfort women were registered as “comfort women” and have secured a movie showing a late former comfort woman awarded Order of Civil Merit directly confessed in her natural voice to her lie of having been mobilized as a comfort woman. We will show you such materials at this seminar.”
She said at that time, “Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Act on Livelihood Stability and Memorial Services, etc. for Sexual Slavery Victims for the Japanese Imperial Army defines ‘Japanese military sexual slavery victims’ as having been ‘forcibly’ mobilized by Imperial Japan, sexually abused, and obliged to live as comfort women. As a result of our research, however, among the 240-odd people registered as comfort women, there were none met such a definition,” and added, “This is completely different from what the public believes. That’s why we even said, ‘Comfort women are frauds.’”
Meanwhile, members of the Settlement Organization who were continuing expeditionary demonstrations from June 26 to 30, 2022, holding placards reading, “Stop the comfort women fraud,” and shouting slogans in front of the Berlin Comfort Woman Statue, published, on June 27, their “Written Opinion to Mitte Mayor” to be sent in letter form to the head of Berlin’s borough of Mitte where the Statue was erected.
The Settlement Organization stated in that Opinion, “The reason why we visited Germany from South Korea is that according to our careful examination of documents on the comfort women issue and their testimonies, the comfort women-related claims by the Korean Council and the Korea Verband were all lies, causing South Korea to face with an unfortunate condition of being branded as a lying country.”
They continued, “Honorable Mitte Mayor! We sincerely hope that you and Mitte’s people will not be deceived any longer by the lies of the Korean Verband and will open your and their eyes to the truth about the comfort women issue. And we politely request you never permit any extension of the display of the Comfort Woman Statue, a symbol of lies and hatred. This is because we love the Republic of Korea as its citizens.”
● Jayupress (6:01 p.m. June 28, 2022,)