U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday in New York met with an elderly South Korean victim of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery. It was the first such meeting since Ban took the post in 2006.

Ban met with 89-year-old Kil Won-ok at the U.N. headquarters, saying he respects her efforts to raise awareness of the wartime crime to make sure there will be no recurrence.

The meeting came amid persistent protest over the landmark agreement in December between South Korea and Japan on resolving the sexual slavery issue. Ban has also faced criticism for welcoming the deal that is highly contested by the surviving victims and their support groups for lacking the “legal” apology demanded by them as well as for bypassing consultation with them. Kil had staged a protest in front of the Japanese Embassy in Washington last week.

In the 30-minute meeting on Friday, Ban told Kil that what he welcomed was the efforts of the two countries to resolve the issue, not the content of the agreement, according to Yoon Mee-hyang, head of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

During the meeting, a joint petition of some 30 international human rights organizations was delivered to Ban. In the petition, they expressed regret about Ban’s welcoming of the deal and called for the U.N. to launch an investigation into the wartime crime.

There are 44 surviving victims out of the 238 who are registered with the government. Their average age is 89.4.

In South Korea, “Spirits’ Homecoming,” a film depicting the lives of the “comfort women” surpassed 3 million viewers over the weekend, data showed Sunday.
(Graphic: Nam Kyung-don)