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Far-right activist repeats insult to 'comfort women' after police questioning

Published: 04 Feb. 2026, 16:14

A weekly rally calling for a resolution to the issue of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery takes place near the Japanese Embassy in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Feb. 4. [YONHAP]

The leader of a far-right group, who has been accused of insulting victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, held a defiant rally on Wednesday, one day after he appeared before police to be questioned about his defamation charges.

Far-right activist Kim Byung-heon and his 10 or so supporters rallied in front of the former Japanese Embassy in central Seoul at noon, calling for the removal of a statue of a girl there. The statue symbolizes the former sex slaves, euphemistically called “comfort women.”

Kim repeated his claim that comfort women are a fraud, accusing their support group and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family of lying that comfort women were victims who were taken away and sexually assaulted by the Japanese military.

On Tuesday, Kim appeared at the Seoul Seocho Police Station to be questioned as a suspect accused of defamation of the deceased and violation of the Assembly and Demonstration Act.

Kim is accused of unfurling a banner with the words “Are you providing career guidance on prostitution by erecting a statue of a prostitute on school grounds?” in front of two Seoul high schools — where comfort women statues are installed — last December.

Kim went on to hold a news conference in front of the Blue House on Wednesday afternoon to demand an apology from President Lee Jae Myung, who recently condemned him and his fellow activists as “beasts that must be isolated” from society.

Yonhap