The European Parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution demanding Japan compensate and formally apologize to the sol-called comfort women who were forced to serve the Japanese military as sex slaves during World War II. Fifty-four out of 57 European lawmakers backed the resolution titled “Justice for the Comfort Women” at a plenary meeting in Strasbourg in France. Three were absent. The resolution condemns Japan’s wartime enslavement of more than 200,000 women from Asian neighbor countries and demands Tokyo take the full responsibility for the war crime. It calls on the Japanese parliament to teach the next generation about the crime and to remove obstacles to the payment of compensation to victims.

The legislatures of the U.S., the Netherlands and Canada passed similar resolutions in July and last month.

(englishnews@chosun.com )