Activists to put up 'comfort woman' statue in Malaysia

Activists in South Korean are planning to put up statues in several Asian countries, including Malaysia, to commemorate women forced into sexual slavery by wartime Japan.

According to the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery, the statues will be put up in areas where the Japanese troops once ran brothels in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and China.

According to AFP, the group was responsible for the 2011 bronze statue of a young girl with a butterfly on her shoulder placed across the street directly opposite the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

The empty bench beside the girl signifies a long lost friend who have disappeared after being forced to become a sex slave.

The statue represents "comfort women" forced to service Japanese troops in brothels before and during World War II in Korea.

This has outraged Tokyo, which called for its removal, but local authorities in Seoul refused to take action.

Second statue to be in Singapore

The group plans to put up another statue in Singapore, making it the first country outside of South Korea to have such a memorial, said activist Doseul Jeong.

"A second girl statue will be erected in Singapore, probably in March, after consultations with authorities there," she said.

Jeong said a delegation would be sent to the country soon to finalise plans on the statue.

The sex slaves issue remains a bone of contention between the Japan and South Korea, with historians estimating some 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and other countries were drafted to work in Japanese army brothels in Asia.

Japan, which ruled Korea from 1910-45, had stated all claims for colonial-era suffering were settled in a compensation agreement with Seoul in 1965, but the latter maintains Japan has failed to make adequate reparations.