A group of Korean-American youngsters have persuaded the U.S. House of Representatives to renew its calls on Japan to apologize for forcing women into sexual slavery during World War II. Three years ago, the House of Representatives adopted Resolution 121, which demands that Japan issue further apologies to the former "comfort women," but Tokyo took no action and the matter faded from view.

That was when 20 high-school interns at the Korean-American Voters' Council of New York and New Jersey convinced House representatives to adopt another special statement on Tuesday calling on Japan to abide by the resolution and issue an apology.

The House Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment in the statement said the Japanese government has yet to acknowledge the violation of human rights and issue an apology, even though the country's prime minister changed several times since the last resolution. It stressed that time is running out since the “comfort women” are in their twilight years.

Eni Faleomavaega, who heads the Subcommittee on Asia, plans to read the special statement at the main House session and send it out to the Japanese government.

High-school interns of the Korean-American Voters' Council of New York and New Jersey pose for a group photo with actor Cha In-pyo (left) at the center on Tuesday. They convinced U.S. lawmakers to renew its calls on Japan to apologize for forcing women into sexual slavery during World War II.

The youngsters began their efforts five weeks ago. They discovered that the House usually checks up on the results of resolutions two to three years after they are passed but there was no follow-up when it came to Resolution 121. They contacted the representatives at the committee who spearheaded the resolution and urged further action. "It's a human rights issue so the representatives were very willing to listen to our comments," said Chung Il-hyung, one of the students. The students wrote to eight representatives, including Gary Ackerman (D-New York), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) and Scott Garrett (R-New Jersey) and visited the House on Monday.

On the day the special statement was adopted, Korean actor Cha In-pyo, who has been campaigning on the issue, visited the KAVC and bought pizzas for the interns to show his appreciation. "I am proud that the students were able to explain the problem to the representatives and prompt them to take action," Cha said. The student interns had gathered 80,000 signatures that led to the adoption of the comfort women resolution three years ago and set up a memorial for the women in New York and New Jersey last year.