S. Korean court orders Japan to compensate ‘comfort women’

SEOUL — The Seoul Central District Court on Friday ordered the Japanese government to pay damages in full to 12 former “comfort women,” the first such ruling that has been reached in a lawsuit filed by former comfort women in South Korea against Japan.

The women are each claiming 100 million won (about ¥9.5 million) in compensation.

The court decision contradicts Japan’s stance that postwar compensation issues between the two countries were “settled completely and finally” under the 1965 Agreement on the Settlement of Problems Concerning Property and Claims and on Economic Cooperation.

The latest court decision will inevitably further rupture the bilateral relationship — which is already said to be “the worst it has been since the end of World War II” due to a series of issues including those involving former requisitioned workers from the Korean Peninsula.

The Japanese government has refused to participate in the trial because of the principle of “sovereign immunity” under international law, which holds that a sovereign state cannot be sued before the courts of another sovereign state without its consent.

Whether a South Korean court would accept the principle of sovereign immunity was the main focus of the trial.

The comfort women issue involved “systematic and inhumane criminal acts carried out by the Japanese government,” according to the district court ruling, which also stated that “sovereign immunity cannot be applied.”

The court ordered the full compensation out of consideration for “the unimaginable mental and physical suffering suffered by the plaintiffs.”

The lawsuit was triggered in 2013 when former comfort

women filed for mediation. At that time, Japan did not accept the mediation on the grounds of the 1965 agreement, and the case moved to litigation in 2016.

Seven of the plaintiffs have already died.

On Wednesday, another ruling filed by 20 people, including former comfort women, is

scheduled to be handed down against the Japanese government, leaving open the possibility that there will be a series of court decisions granting compensation.

In 2015, the Japanese government reached an agreement with the conservative administration of then South Korean President Park Geun-hye, confirming

that the issue of comfort women had been “finally and irreversibly” resolved.” However, the left-wing administration of President Moon Jaein, which was inaugurated in 2017, effectively scrapped the agreement, claiming it did “not reflect the will of the victims.”

A Japanese company lost a lawsuit filed by requisitioned

workers in South Korea, and plaintiffs are proceeding with the seizure and sale of assets held by the company in the country.

The Moon administration, claiming it “respects justice,” has not responded proactively, causing a further deterioration in the Japan-Korea relationship. (Jan. 9)