Japan urges South Korea to drop compensation demands

Recent court ruling orders Japan to compensate women who were sexually abused in military brothels

TOKYO — Japan’s foreign minister accused South Korea on Monday of worsening already strained ties by making “illegal” demands for compensation for the sexual abuse of Korean women and use of forced labourers during the Second World War.

Toshimitsu Motegi, in a diplomatic policy speech in parliament, said a recent South Korean court ruling ordering Japan to compensate 12 South Korean women who were sexually abused in Japanese military brothels during the war was “an abnormal development absolutely unthinkable under international law and bilateral relations.” “We strongly urge South Korea to correct the violation of international law as soon as possible” and restore healthy relations, Motegi said.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled on Jan. 8 the Japanese government must give $91,360 (US) to each of 12 elderly women who filed lawsuits in 2013 over their wartime suffering as “comfort women.” They were among tens of thousands of women across Japanese-occupied Asia and the Pacific who were sent to front-line Japanese army brothels.

The ruling worsened tensions between the two countries, whose relations had already plunged to the lowest level in decades over earlier South Korean rulings on Japan’s actions during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

In 2015, the then governments of South Korea and Japan reached what was supposed to be a final and irreversible deal to settle the issue with a new $9 million (US) fund set up by the Japanese government, but the current Moon administration dissolved it, saying the deal was reached without proper consultation with the victims.

President Moon Jae-in said Monday South Korea recognizes the 2015 deal as a legitimate agreement that should provide a foundation for finding a better solution that would satisfy the victims.