There is a resurgence of local COVID-19 cases in South Korea, and while the government seems to have a handle on the pandemic, it is also facing a challenge of a different kind on another front. The welfare of South Korean comfort women has been a prominent issue in the country, with both the government and non-government organizations taking up the cause.

The primary entity in this area is the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance, which was founded in 1990 to seek justice and recompense for the former comfort women who were victimized during World War II. There are fewer than 50 South Korean comfort women alive today, and yet, decades down the road, it seems they have yet to find what they have been seeking.

In the beginning May, one of the most prominent faces of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance, Lee Yong-soo, held a press conference revealing a disturbing state of affairs. Her statement is reflective of infighting within the comfort women community. She said that she does not believe that the Council is following its mandate and that it is excluding other comfort women.

"The comfort women who belong to the Council are considered as victims and are cared for by the Council, but those who do not belong to the Council are not cared for. I have been deceived and exploited for the last 30 years," Lee Yong-soo said.

She also declared that she would stop going to the weekly rallies which the Council has been organizing and holding since the early 1990s. According to the 92-year-old, these rallies are counterproductive and only serve to fuel bad blood. She cited the youth in particular, saying that "students spend their own precious money and time to attend these rallies, but the rallies only teach hatred and suffering. Korean and Japanese youths with historically accurate education must befriend each other and communicate with each other to solve problems."

This decision has been met with dismay and shock by the South Korean public.

Another facet to the controversy involves advocate-turned-politician Yoon Mee-hyang who used to lead the Council before she stepped down to take office in the National Assembly under the ruling Democratic Party. She now faces allegations of fraud and embezzlement, which Lee Yong-soo also revealed in her press conference. According to former the comfort woman, Yoon Mee-hyang had used personal bank accounts to receive donations, which the Council relies on. Some of these funds were allegedly used by Yoon Mee-hyang to purchase private property as well as pay for the education of her daughter in the United States, among other things.

The Council itself is implicated in misappropriating funds. As a result, the office of the Prosecutor General ordered an investigation into the matter, the findings of which have yet to be shared to the public. On the Council's part, they have denied any wrongdoing, only admitting possible accounting errors. Yoon Mee-hyang has done the same, going further by making a rebuttal saying that Lee Yong-soo's memory is faulty due to her age and that she is lying.

However, Lee Yong-soo is not the only one stirring the hornet's nest that is the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance and its activities. Families of other former comfort women are joining in the criticism of the organization and sharing their own experiences.

Hwang Sun-hee is the son of former comfort woman Gil Won-ok, and he says that his mother has been used by the Korean Council to turn a profit. That the comfort women have served as "panhandlers" for the organization. He highlights the fact that there are only a few survivors left and that they should receive the justice and recompense they deserve - not the deception and betrayal of those who are supposed to help them.

Even as the legal issues unfold in what is now being called a scandal, the plot thickens. On June 7, the head of a woman's shelter run by the Korean Council was found dead in her own home. The specific cause of death is unknown but the authorities have ruled it a suicide. In a statement, the Korean Council mentioned how the 60-year-old woman had been struggling with the investigation resulting from Lee Yong-soo's allegations and that "she said she felt as if her entire life was being denied".

Majority of South Koreans believe that Yoon Mee-hyang should step down from her seat as a government official. The politician has said she has no plans of doing so. In the meantime, the former comfort women are left hanging, with no reassurance from their own government.