Survivor asks sides to go to U.N. court

S. Korea, Japan at odds on sex slavery

SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean woman who was sexually enslaved by Japan’s World War II military called for the leaders of both countries to settle an impasse over the issue by seeking judgment from the International Court of Justice.

The 92-year-old woman, Lee Yong-soo, said Tuesday that she hopes a ruling by the U.N.’s highest court handling disputes would bring closure after she and other survivors campaigned for 30 years, but were unsuccessful, demanding that the Japanese government accept legal responsibility for their slavery.

Reading a message to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Lee also lamented that the friction between governments over the sexual slavery issue has also hurt relations between civilians and discouraged exchanges and friendship between young people, who she said weren’t being properly educated about wartime history.

Moon’s office had no immediate reaction to Lee’s plea. Choi Young-sam, spokesman of South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said the government will “carefully review” Lee’s proposal while hearing more opinions from survivors.

“Our government will continue to closely communicate with ‘comfort women’ victims while trying to resolve the matter,” he said, using a common euphemism for the former sex slaves.

It’s unclear if Seoul would ever consider referring the matter to the U.N. court, where it has never fought any case and when anything less than a lopsided victory might be seen at home as a defeat.

But Lee said it has become clear the issue cannot be resolved through bilateral diplomatic talks or rulings by South Korea’s domestic courts that have been repeatedly rejected by the Japanese government.

“I am not asking for money. [I am asking for Japan’s] full acknowledgment of responsibilities and apology,” said Lee, who sobbed as she read the letter during the news conference in Seoul.

“There’s not much time. My last wish is for the president, our government, to seek a judgment by international law, so that I have something to say when I die and meet other survivors.”

To Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Lee said: “Let’s do this together. Let’s go to international court and settle this issue in a right way once and for all, so that the people of both countries could treat each other likes friends again … There’s no reason for us to live like enemies.”

Tens of thousands of women across Japanese-occupied Asia and the Pacific were moved to front-line brothels used by the Japanese military.

Bilateral tensions over sexual slavery flared again last month when a South Korean court ruled that the Japanese government must give $90,000 to each of 12 victims who filed lawsuits in 2013 over their wartime sufferings.

Japan insists all wartime compensation issues were settled under a 1965 treaty normalizing relations with South Korea in which Tokyo provided $500 million in economic assistance to Seoul.

Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu blasted last month’s court ruling as an “abnormal development absolutely unthinkable under international law and bilateral relations” and accused Seoul of worsening their ties.

The countries had already been struggling to repair relations that sank to the lowest point in decades in 2019 over earlier South Korean rulings calling for Japanese companies to compensate Koreans who were forced to work in factories during the war.