A closed-circuit television has been installed to monitor any damage to a girl statue, symbolizing Korean women victimized by the Japanese army as sex slaves during World War II, located in front of the Japanese consulate here, a ward office said Thursday.
 

"We've set up the CCTV about 30 meters distant from the statue, and will watch it around the clock from Friday," an official at the East Ward Office in Busan said. The statue is located in the ward's jurisdiction.

In December, civic groups established the statue in front of the Japanese consulate in South Korea's largest port city. Japan immediately called for its removal, and recalled its ambassador in protest in January. The diplomat has yet to come back.

Since then, activists have called for the ward office to set up a CCTV to watch any act detrimental to the statue.

Some 200,000 young Korean women are estimated to have been forcibly taken to front-line brothels run by the Japanese army during the war. (Yonhap)