Lee Yong-soo

Lee Yong-soo (; born December 13, 1928) is a former comfort woman from South Korea. Lee was forced to serve as a comfort woman during World War II by the Imperial Japanese Army. She is one of the youngest comfort women still living.

Biography

Lee Yong-soo was born in Daegu, South Korea on December 13, 1928. Lee was sixteen when she was forced to become a comfort woman. She was outside near a riverbank, catching snails with her friend Bunsun, when both were captured by a military man. She and her friend were taken by train, and then switched to a boat at Anju. She learned quickly to submit so that she would not be shocked or beaten again. Lee says that she never thought to run away because she did not know how to leave the area even if she did escape. She was influenced by Kim Hak-sun's press conference on TV to finally talk to others. Nevertheless, the outcome of her testimony (along with the testimony of two other comfort women) led to the House passing a resolution which asked the Japanese government to apologize formally to former comfort women. The resolution was passed unanimously. In 2014, Lee Yong-soo met with Pope Francis. As a devout Catholic, she hoped that the Pope could help end their pain.

In 2015, she attended the South Korean National Assembly's exhibition of art created by former comfort women. She was a guest of California Representative Mike Honda in 2015. Yong-soo also participated in protests in the United States when Prime Minister Abe visited.

Lee Yong-soo continues to participate in weekly demonstrations held on Wednesdays in front of the Japanese Embassy. She always wears a traditional Korean hanbok, including the dongjeong, beoseon and gomusin so that everyone who sees her knows that "I am a Joseon daughter. I am an honorable Korean." She says, "I don't want to advertise that I am a comfort women victim. Rather, I want to be a problem solver that can ensure that there will be no other victims of war such as us." However, on May 27, Lee made a surprise appearance at one of the Wednesday demonstrations in Daegu.

On March 3, 2021, Lee Yong-soo met Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong. She asked the Korean government to raise the issue of Japanese military sexual slavery at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). While referring to Harvard law professor J. Mark Ramseyer, who claimed in his paper "Contracting for sex in the Pacific War" that Korean women voluntarily chose to be comfort women, she said, "That professor should be dragged to the ICJ too."