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Family of recently deceased comfort women's rights activist donates 10 million won to Incheon city

Published: 24 Feb. 2025, 15:25 Updated: 24 Feb. 2025, 17:54

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Participants at a Wednesday demonstration for the resolution of the Japanese military sexual slavery issue offer flowers at the memorial tablet of the late activist and survivor Gil Won-ok on Feb. 19. [NEWS1]

The bereaved family of the late Gil Won-ok, an activist and survivor of the Japanese military’s wartime sexual slavery who died on Feb. 16, donated 10 million won ($7,010) to women's rights facilities in Incheon on Monday.

Gil’s bereaved family delivered the donation to Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok in the mayor’s reception room on Monday, according to Incheon Metropolitan City Government.

Gil’s son, pastor Hwang Seon-hee, her daughter-in-law Jo Geun-soon, and Kim Seok-soon, the director of the Incheon Sexual Violence Counseling Center, a joint facility of Incheon Metropolitan City, attended the ceremony.

Gil died on Feb. 16 at the age of 97. She dedicated her life to raising awareness of the plight of the so-called comfort women, referring to young girls and women who were forced into sexual slavery during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule over Korea.

“Our mother engaged in many acts of kindness when she was alive,” said Gil's family. “After the funeral, we thought about what kind of work she would like done in her name, and decided to donate because we thought this would be what she wanted most.”

Gil was born in Huichon, then North Pyongan Province, in 1928 and spent her childhood in Pyongyang. When she was 13, she went to Manchuria, China, thinking she would get a job at a factory, but was kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army.

After registering as a victim of the Japanese military comfort woman system with the Korean government in 1998, Gil actively worked to reveal the truth about the former colonial power's abuses of women.

Not only did she attend the UN Human Rights Council and the International Labor Organization (ILO) General Assembly to testify about her experiences, but she also traveled to Australia, Canada, the United States, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and other countries to work on restoring the human rights of victims of wartime sexual violence.

She passed away on Feb. 16 after battling illness due to deteriorating health caused by old age.

The Incheon Sexual Violence Counseling Center plans to use the donation from the bereaved family of Gil to establish a mental and physical recovery program room so that victims of sexual violence can heal in a safer and more comfortable environment.

The program was named “Gil” to honor the deceased’s dedication to the cause.

“We will do our best to make the Gil program a space that gives hope and courage to victims,” said Director Kim Seok-soon.

“I believe that providing a stable healing space for victims of sexual violence is the way to remember and inherit Gil’s noble will and spirit,” said Incheon Mayor Yoo. “Incheon City will also respect the human rights of victims of Japanese military comfort women and continue to work toward a just resolution.”

Meanwhile, with the passing of Gil, the number of survivors of Japanese military comfort women has decreased to seven.

Of the total 240 victims registered with the Korean government, 233 have died. By age, two of the survivors are aged between 90-95 and five are 96-years-old.

BY CHOI MO-RAN, LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]