Hundreds of citizens and activists join the funeral procession of late former wartime sexual slavery victim, Kim Bok-dong, in central Seoul on Feb. 1, 2019. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jul. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — A peace park named after the late Kim Bok-dong, an iconic Korean victim of Japanese wartime sexual slavery, will be built in her hometown, officials said Thursday.
The municipal council of Yangsan, a South Gyeongsang Province town about 420 kilometers southeast of Seoul, said it and 21 civic groups have jointly formed a preparatory committee to construct a public park in memory of Kim, who died in January aged 93.
The park, tentatively named “Kim Bok-dong Peace Park,” will serve as a place to remember Kim, as well as a resting place for local residents, according to the council.
Kim is considered a symbolic figure in Korea and worldwide for her monumental work in disseminating the truth about sexual enslavement during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and her active role in promoting women’s rights issues, especially for those who have experienced wartime sexual violence in recent decades.
Kim was born in Yangsan in 1926 before being forcibly taken to Japan at age 14.
(Yonhap)
