A 91-year-old former "comfort woman" in South Korea has criticized weekly protest rallies in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, saying they preach hatred to young participants.
Lee Yong-soo's accusation, made at a news conference Thursday, marks a rare moment of dissent among veteran participants in the rallies that have been held 1,438 times every Wednesday since January 1992.
Together with a civic group that has organized the rallies and supported the comfort women who were forced or coerced into sexual servitude under various circumstances before and during the war, including abduction, deception and poverty, Lee has spent years demanding an apology and compensation from the Japanese government.