Ahead of the South Korea-Japan summit, protesters gathered in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul Wednesday and demanded the Japanese government resolve the issue of wartime sexual slavery.

Korean woman who forcibly served as sex slaves during Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and some 30 civic group members turned out for the rally near the presidential office in Seoul. The group said unless the issue of compensating comfort women is solved, it will be impossible to mend South Korea-Japan relations.

The participants at the rally also said the two governments must be proactive in negotiations for the sex slaves in addition to the talks for bilateral free trade deal. They also said that the current Japanese government had issued some of the former wartime sex slaves 99 yen, which was the rate at the time during Japan's occupation, as part of a welfare pension refund. The protestors said the measure was an open insult against them.

The group then went to the Japanese embassy in Seoul and continued their protest condemning the wartime sex slave issue.