A South Korean court has ordered Japan to compensate women forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II, a landmark decision that ignited tensions among U.S. allies just before Joe Biden took office.
The Seoul district court on Friday adopted what is believed to be the first decision ordering Japan to compensate what are euphemistically known as “comfort women,” in a case filed on behalf of 12 of the woman. He ordered the Japanese government to pay 100 million won ($ 91,000) each to the surviving women and family members of those who died.
“The plaintiffs appear to have suffered extreme mental and physical pain,” the court said in its ruling. Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government in 2013, demanding 100 million won ($ 92,500) each for compensation.
The court said Japan refused to accept documents related to the issue and rejected claims that Tokyo can invoke state immunity in the lawsuit, saying the war trafficking case “is against humanitarianism. “.
Japanese government top spokesman Katsunobu Kato told reporters in Tokyo that the ruling could not be accepted and strongly urged the South Korean government to remedy what he called a violation of international law.
“Under the principle of sovereign immunity, the Japanese government cannot be subject to the orders of a South Korean court. The case must be dismissed,” Kato said. “It is very unfortunate that this kind of verdict has been reached,” Kato said.
In 2015, Japan and South Korea announced a “definitive and irreversible” agreement that came with a personal apology to the women of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as well as about $ 9.3 million for a fund of compensation.
Some of the women protested, arguing that the deal was made without consultation and violating their constitutional rights. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office in 2017, has effectively closed the fund, widening the rift between the two key U.S. military allies to check China’s growing global influence and atomic ambitions of North Korea.
In September, Moon received a severe blow when prosecutors filed embezzlement charges against a legislator from his ruling party, Yoon Mee-hyang, alleging that he was illegally diverting government donations and grants to a comfort women support group when he ran it.
Yoon has denied charges of the case that came to light last year when a war trafficking survivor accused the group of raising funds to get rich and do little to help women who were forced into sexual servitude. .
Tensions escalated further among neighbors after a series of South Korean court rulings in late 2018 requiring Japan to pay compensation to Koreans recruited to work in Japanese factories and mines during the country’s 1910-1945 colonial rule. on the Korean peninsula.
The United States was forced to intervene when South Korea threatened in 2019 to withdraw from a joint intelligence-sharing deal, with Moon stepping back at the last minute after facing Washington pressure.
Japan says all claims were “completely and finally resolved” under a 1965 agreement, which accompanied the treaty that established diplomatic ties between the two countries. By contrast, the Moon administration believes that the individual suffering of many victims was not covered by the treaty.
Japan paid the equivalent of $ 300 million ($ 2.5 billion in current money) and expanded $ 200 million in low-interest loans. The then-struggling South Korea invested the money in industries that eventually helped turn it into an economic powerhouse.
Historians say between 50,000 and 200,000 women (many of them Korean) were forced into service in Japan’s military brothels.
– With the assistance of Gareth Allan
(Updates with Japan’s rejection of the fifth paragraph claim)