Head of shelter for S. Korean 'comfort women' found dead: police

PAJU, South Korea, June 7 (Yonhap) -- The head of a shelter for surviving victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery has been found dead, police said Sunday.

The 60-year-old head of the shelter run by the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance (KCJR), a NGO working for South Korea's "comfort women," was found dead at his apartment in Paju, north of Seoul, according to police officials.

Comfort women is a euphemism for the victims who were forced to work in Japanese front-line brothels during World War II when Korea was a Japanese colony. The shelter in question is located in the district of Mapo, western Seoul.

The death comes amid an on-going controversy at the KCJR, sparked by a prominent victim's allegation last month that a former chief of the group misused donations and exploited the victims for her political ambitions.

The former leader, Yoon Mi-hyang, won a seat in the National Assembly in April. Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the scandal and raided the shelter, as well as the KCJR office and its affiliated museum, last month.

odissy@yna.co.kr
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