The National Archives of Korea will safeguard records on former comfort women forced by Japan to provide sex to its soldiers during World War II.

The government agency said Monday that it will archive 3,060 items currently stored by the House of Sharing, a home for surviving former comfort women.

The records include oral statements by former comfort women on their lives as sex slaves; video footage of psychological testing, news conferences and rallies; their drawings; and articles by the deceased.

“They are academically and historically most valuable and very useful for grasping the damage to comfort women and understanding their lives,” an official of the archives said. “They may be of great use to the Foreign Ministry.”

Fifty-six known former comfort women are still alive in Korea. It is not known how many women were drafted as comfort women, but it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Korean women were forced to serve as prostitutes for the Japanese military.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)