South Korean protesters denounce Japan’s apology

South Korean women who served as sex slaves for Japan’s army during World War II have denounced Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s apology.

A protest in Seoul was held after Kan apologised for the suffering inflicted during Japan’s colonisation of the Korean peninsula a century ago.

Many believe it is meaningless without compensation.

‘‘He should have made an apology to the people who were forced to work as sex slaves or manual labourers, but he just made a vague apology, so we do not accept it as sincere,’‘ said one protestor.

‘‘I was drafted when I was a child, so I did not study much. How can I know what he meant – I do not know what kind of guy the Japanese prime minister is. I just think of Japan’s wrongdoing in the past,’‘ said another.

Korea was a former Japanese colony from 1910 until the end of the war.

Despite apologising for its imperialist past Tokyo has refused to pay compensation to any of the estimated 200,000 women forced to work in military brothels.

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