Koreans Women

Japan apologized Monday for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as prostitutes for its soldiers in World War II. Protesters in South Korea demanded compensation for the war's "comfort girls." Until now, Japan denied involvement in the matter, saying private groups were responsible for what Koreans said was the coercion of up to 200,000 women from Korea, then a Japanese colony, into prostitution.

  The old women, this time with hundreds of demonstrators shouting their support outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, on Wednesday marked the 1,000th successive weekly protest against Tokyo for a 7-decade-old war crime. The women's demands remained unchanged: Punish surviving members of the Imperial Japanese Army responsible for taking an estimated 200,000 young Korean women as sex slaves during World War II and pay governmental reparations. Those who fell victim to the Japanese military as young women, who during the war were called "comfort women," are still seeking closure.

It was 8-year-old Kim Bu Nam's job each day to fetch water for her family from the well of a neighbor who ran a candy store. One day, Song Baek Gwon, the 35-year-old neighbor, called young Kim into his house and raped her. Twenty-one years later, following two broken marriages and several months in a mental hospital, Kim returned to her little South Korean farming village and paid a call on Song and his wife.

The sea is restless as Kim Jae-yeon perches on the rocky shoreline, eyeing the churning waters at her feet. Slowly, she wipes her goggles with a fistful of grass to keep them from fogging underwater and offers a prayer to the pounding surf for her good fortune. Like six generations of women before her on this treeless speck of land in the East China Sea, the young mother of two is preparing for a dangerous job no man here is allowed to perform: free-diving for minutes at a time to catch abalone and other shellfish.

The sea is restless as Kim Jae-yeon perches on the rocky shoreline, eyeing the churning waters at her feet. Slowly, she wipes her goggles with a fistful of grass to keep them from fogging underwater and offers a prayer to the pounding surf for her good fortune. Like six generations of women before her on this treeless speck of land in the East China Sea, the young mother of two is preparing for a dangerous job no man here is allowed to perform: free-diving for minutes at a time to catch abalone and other shellfish.

She walks through cemeteries to calm her nerves, and apparently her method works. Tuesday, a steady Cho Youn Jeong won her second gold medal of the Olympics, helping South Korea to the championship in women's team archery. South Korea beat China, 236-228, in the 27-shot final round. The Commonwealth of Independent States defeated France for the bronze, 240-222. "I get very nervous and fearful about every competition so I take long walks at night through the cemetery," Cho said.

In a tragic coincidence, two elderly Korean women walking to English classes at a Reseda church were struck and killed early Thursday while crossing Sherman Way, the second pair of pedestrians to die on San Fernando Valley streets in five days. Soon Nam Uom, 72, and Jung Kum Kong, 67--both enrolled in language classes to fulfill their dream of becoming American citizens--were jaywalking across the six-lane thoroughfare just west of Andasol Avenue at 7:10 a.m.

Two criminal syndicates suspected of smuggling hundreds of South Korean women into the United States to work at brothels in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas have been broken up with the arrest of 45 people, including the ringleaders, federal authorities announced Friday. In raids on massage parlors, chiropractic offices and apartments at both ends of the state, federal agents and local law enforcement officers took into custody nearly 150 suspected prostitutes as material witnesses. U.S.

In a precedent for this male-dominated culture, the likeness of a woman will appear on a South Korean bank note, specifically the central bank's 50,000-won bill. The bill, worth about $36, will show a portrait and the work of painter and calligrapher Shin Saim-dang, who died in 1551. She has long been praised as a model of Confucian ideals.

It was a bittersweet night for South Korea on Wednesday in short-track speedskating at the Delta Center. Korean skaters won gold and silver in the women's 1,500-meter final, beating the fabled Yang Yangs of China in the process, but only after men's teammate Min Ryoung had been injured sliding headfirst into the retaining wall after a collision with American Rusty Smith in a preliminary race.

In a precedent for this male-dominated culture, the likeness of a woman will appear on a South Korean bank note, specifically the central bank's 50,000-won bill. The bill, worth about $36, will show a portrait and the work of painter and calligrapher Shin Saim-dang, who died in 1551. She has long been praised as a model of Confucian ideals.

Two criminal syndicates suspected of smuggling hundreds of South Korean women into the United States to work at brothels in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas have been broken up with the arrest of 45 people, including the ringleaders, federal authorities announced Friday. In raids on massage parlors, chiropractic offices and apartments at both ends of the state, federal agents and local law enforcement officers took into custody nearly 150 suspected prostitutes as material witnesses. U.S.

It was a bittersweet night for South Korea on Wednesday in short-track speedskating at the Delta Center. Korean skaters won gold and silver in the women's 1,500-meter final, beating the fabled Yang Yangs of China in the process, but only after men's teammate Min Ryoung had been injured sliding headfirst into the retaining wall after a collision with American Rusty Smith in a preliminary race.

Usually, when it comes to conducting interviews, a tape recorder is merely a tool of the trade. In the case of South Korea-born playwright Chungmi Kim, however, the inexpensive little machine placed on the table at Du Par's, tucked between the playwright's healthy plate of fresh fish and her interviewer's slab of pie, triggers a surprising flood of emotions.

In a tragic coincidence, two elderly Korean women walking to English classes at a Reseda church were struck and killed early Thursday while crossing Sherman Way, the second pair of pedestrians to die on San Fernando Valley streets in five days. Soon Nam Uom, 72, and Jung Kum Kong, 67--both enrolled in language classes to fulfill their dream of becoming American citizens--were jaywalking across the six-lane thoroughfare just west of Andasol Avenue at 7:10 a.m.

Just five years ago, a South Korean woman struggling against a determined rapist bit off part of her assailant's tongue. She was convicted of assault for using "excessive force." Back then, a Korean widow was not entitled to her husband's estate. Under family law, it went to the eldest son because only men could be heads of households. South Korea is arguably the most Confucian of all Asian nations, where "men are heaven; women are earth."

Just five years ago, a South Korean woman struggling against a determined rapist bit off part of her assailant's tongue. She was convicted of assault for using "excessive force." Back then, a Korean widow was not entitled to her husband's estate. Under family law, it went to the eldest son because only men could be heads of households. South Korea is arguably the most Confucian of all Asian nations, where "men are heaven; women are earth."

  The old women, this time with hundreds of demonstrators shouting their support outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, on Wednesday marked the 1,000th successive weekly protest against Tokyo for a 7-decade-old war crime. The women's demands remained unchanged: Punish surviving members of the Imperial Japanese Army responsible for taking an estimated 200,000 young Korean women as sex slaves during World War II and pay governmental reparations. Those who fell victim to the Japanese military as young women, who during the war were called "comfort women," are still seeking closure.

She walks through cemeteries to calm her nerves, and apparently her method works. Tuesday, a steady Cho Youn Jeong won her second gold medal of the Olympics, helping South Korea to the championship in women's team archery. South Korea beat China, 236-228, in the 27-shot final round. The Commonwealth of Independent States defeated France for the bronze, 240-222. "I get very nervous and fearful about every competition so I take long walks at night through the cemetery," Cho said.

Japan apologized Monday for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as prostitutes for its soldiers in World War II. Protesters in South Korea demanded compensation for the war's "comfort girls." Until now, Japan denied involvement in the matter, saying private groups were responsible for what Koreans said was the coercion of up to 200,000 women from Korea, then a Japanese colony, into prostitution.