South Korean pop singer Kim Jang-hoon will hold a special exhibition of photos depicting Korean women forced into sex slavery by the Japanese military during World War II as part of his upcoming art show in Shanghai, his management agency said Thursday.

Kim plans to hold the art show on South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo from April 17-26 at the Korean cultural center in Shanghai to help raise the Chinese people’s awareness that Dokdo is part of South Korea.

The singer will add the special exhibition on former sex slaves to the show in an effort to raise awareness about the two issues, Concert World said. 

Kim recently received consent from the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in central Seoul, which currently displays photos, videos, cartoons and illustrations of the victims, to borrow some items, mostly photos, for the special exhibition in Shanghai, according to the agency.

It said the 46-year-old star also has a plan to hold a joint exhibition of photos and artwork on Asian women who fell victim to the Japanese wartime atrocities with about five countries, including China and the Philippines, in the future.

Historians say up to 200,000 women, many of them Korean, were coerced into sexual servitude by the Japanese army at front-line brothels during the war, when the Korean Peninsula was a Japanese colony. Of the 237 Korean women who reported themselves as former sex slaves, only 55 are still alive.

The Dokdo Art Show will display photos and a model of the Dokdo Islets as well as a documentary and 3-D videos on them, the agency said.

The Dokdo Islets lie closer to South Korea in the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. They have long been a thorn in relations between the two neighbors as Japan also claims sovereignty over them.

The singer, who is well-known for his love of Dokdo and for donations to charity groups, began the touring show at a gallery in SoHo, New York City, in November and is raising funds to take the show to more cities around the world. (Yonhap)