KIM BOK-DONG, one of South Korea’s most prominent survivors of wartime sexual slavery under Japanese rule, has died aged 92, further galvanizing Seoul’s determination to seek justice for the country’s “comfort women.”

Kim, who achieved international renown for her human rights activism, died in a hospital Monday, according to the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in wrote on his Facebook page that her testimony at the U.N. Human Rights Committee in 1993 “brought light to the hidden history” and gave others “courage to face the truth.”

Moon praised Kim for refusing to be portrayed as a victim, instead “pushing for an apology over imperial Japan’s atrocities and legal compensations.”

Kim died several years after being diagnosed with cancer and just hours after another elderly victim died, although her name has been withheld. There are now only 23 South Korean survivors of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery.

Kim Bok-dong first testified to her experiences in 1992, one year after Kim Hak-soon became the first South Korean woman to speak publicly about the sexual slavery she endured. Kim Bok-dong traveled to Europe, the U.S. and Japan to share her story and campaign on behalf of other victims.  (SD-Agencies)