- Title: South Korean protesters hold anti-Abe rally on Liberation Day
- Date: 15th August 2019
- Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (AUGUST 15, 2019) (REUTERS) SOUTH KOREAN FORMER FORCED LABOURERS, LEE CHOON-SHIK (RIGHT) AND YANG GEUM-DEOK (LEFT) IN WHEELCHAIRS AT MARCH, PROTESTERS FOLLOWING THEM HOLDING PORTRAITS OF FORMER FORCED LABOURERS LEE SPEAKING, LOOKING ON YANG HOLDING SIGN READING (Korean / English): "CONDEMN ABE'S ADMINISTRATION / APOLOGISE FOR FORCED LABOUR / NO" PROTESTERS MARCHING HOLDING PORTRAIT OF FORMER FORCED LABOURERS LEE AND YANG BEING PUSHED IN WHEELCHAIRS WHILE HOLDING ANTI-JAPAN SIGNS, CHANTING "WE REMEMBER" PROTESTERS MARCHING HOLDING SIGNS SHOWING JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER, SHINZO ABE, AND READING (English): "NO!" PROTESTER WALKING WITH SIGN READING (English / Korean): "NO ABE / THE THIEF TURNS ON THE MASTER WITH A CLUB / ECONOMIC REGULATION / WITHDRAW IT INSTANTLY" LEE, YANG AND PROTESTERS MARCHING (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) SOUTH KOREAN ACTIVIST, LEE YEON-HEE, SAYING: "Today is the 74th anniversary of Korea's liberation day. The victims of wartime forced labour have been fighting for compensation for the past 25 years, and Japan is now responding to it with economic retaliation. I condemn Japan's measures. We prepared today's protest to fight alongside the victims of forced labour until they get an apology and compensation from Japan." VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS AT RALLY CHANTING "COMPENSATE" WHILE HOLDING SIGN READING (Korean): "FORCED LABOUR / APOLOGY COMPENSATION" VARIOUS OF YANG SPEAKING ON STAGE AT RALLY PROTESTERS HOLDING SIGN READING (Korean / English): "DIRTY ABE! BLIND JAPAN" / "YOUTH VOLUNTEER GROUP NAMED DOUBLE" RALLY IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 29th August 2019 06:34
- Keywords: Japan forced labour independence rally Seoul Liberation Day victims South Korea protest
- Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
- City: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
- Country: South Korea
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001ASBUCZR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Hundreds of South Koreans advocating victims of forced labour by Japan held anti-Abe rallies on Thursday (August 15) as the country was commemorating the 74th anniversary of Korea's independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.
The protesters, including some former forced labourers, held portraits of "late victims of the forced labours" as they marched through Seoul denouncing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his government's decision to impose curbs on exports of some high-tech materials to South Korean, a move they call retaliation over a feud about wartime forced labour.
"We prepared today's protest to fight alongside the victims of forced labour until they get an apology and compensation from Japan," said a leading activist, Lee Yeon-hee.
The dispute, triggered after a South Korean court ordered Japanese firms last year to compensate some of their former labourers, has brought their ties to their lowest ebb in more than half a century.
The neighbours share a bitter history dating to the Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, including forced use of labour by Japanese companies and the use of comfort women, a euphemism for girls and women, many of them Korean, forced to work in its wartime brothels.
(Production: Daewoung Kim, Heejung Jung) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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