SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Yonhap) -- A civic group in Seoul representing Korean women forced by Japan into sexual slavery during World War II said Friday that it has decided to lodge a formal complaint over a government fine.

   The Unification Ministry last month levied a fine of 500,000 won (US$446.8) on the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery for launching an unauthorized protest jointly with North Korea.

   The decision by the ministry, which handles inter-Korean issues, came after the local activist group released an anti-Japan statement jointly with a North Korean group supporting former sex slaves, euphemistically called "comfort women," during the local group's regular Wednesday rally on Aug. 15 in front of the Japanese embassy in central Seoul.

   Since being notified on Sept. 21, the local group has gone through inside discussions and finalized its decision to formally raise an objection to the ministry, an official of the group said.

   "The ministry's notification stated that we launched the rally with the North without a 'prior report,' which is not true," the official said. "(We) clearly had filed the report for the rally, but the Unification Ministry refused to accept it."

   In the statement read at the rally, two groups demanded Japan apologize for its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and the sexual enslavement of Korean women, as well as withdraw its push to sign a military information sharing pact with South Korea.

   Under the inter-Korean exchange law, the ministry is allowed to refuse a report of South Koreans contacting North Koreans in case the contact is feared to threaten the public welfare or inter-Korean relations.

   Historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were coerced into sexual slavery at front-line Japanese military brothels during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea.

   khj@yna.co.kr
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