Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon has paid his respects to a late victim of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, and instructed the government to fulfill her dying wish to be buried at a state cemetery, officials said.

Ha Sang-sook, who died Monday at the age of 90, was forced to serve at an overseas military brothel in 1944 when she was only 16.

After Korea was liberated from Japan's 36-year colonial rule in 1945, she lived in China for some six decades. She returned to South Korea only in 2003.

On Tuesday night, Lee visited her funeral altar set up at Kyung Hee University Hospital in eastern Seoul and expressed deep condolences to the bereaved family, officials said.
 

After learning from the bereaved family of Ha's dying wish to be buried at the Hill of National Commemoration, a state cemetery set up in the central city of Cheonan for overseas Koreans, Lee immediately called the welfare minister to take care of the wish, officials said.

Ha's death brought the number of sexual slavery victims still alive only to 36.

Historians estimate that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were forced to work in front-line brothels for Japanese troops during wartime.

In December 2015, Seoul and Tokyo reached a landmark deal in which Tokyo expressed an apology for its colonial-era atrocities and agreed to provide 1 billion yen ($9.16 million) for a foundation aimed at supporting the victims, euphemistically called comfort women.

Many victims, however, rejected the deal, saying it was forged without sufficient consultation with them. President Moon Jae-in has acknowledged that most Korean citizens cannot accept the deal "emotionally," raising the prospects of a renegotiation. (Yonhap)