China to consider joint UNESCO nomination for 'comfort women' files

BEIJING -- China will consider and discuss whether to nominate the "comfort women" files to the Memory of the World Register with other relevant countries as recommended by UNESCO's feedback, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"UNESCO's feedback is that there are other countries that fall victim to the 'comfort women' issue in addition to China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular press conference Monday.

The Memory of the World Programme, established in 1992 by UNESCO, facilitates preservation and increases awareness of the world's heritage documents.

China's nomination of the Nanjing Massacre dossier was inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register last Friday during its 12th meeting. The "comfort women" document, or what is called "sex slaves for Imperial Japanese troops", was not added.

The International Advisory Committee of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme encouraged countries to jointly nominate the "comfort women" files, according to its application guidance, and will review this application in its next meeting in 2017.

"China will consider such an opinion seriously and deliberate on it." Hua said.