SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A South Korean court on Wednesday rejected a claim by South Korean sex slavery victims and their relatives seeking compensation from the Japanese government for their war suffering.
The Seoul Central District Court based its decision on diplomatic considerations and principles of international law that grant states immunity from jurisdiction of foreign courts. This seemed to align with the position held by Tokyo, which had boycotted court proceedings and insists that all issues of compensation during the war were resolved under a 1965 treaty that normalized relations with South Korea.
Activists representing victims of sexual slavery denounced the decision and said the Seoul Central District Court ignored their struggles to restore women’s honor and dignity. In a statement they said the plaintiffs would appeal.
It was not immediately known how the ruling would affect relations between allies of the alien United States. They spent years escalating their feud in public over issues stemming from the brutal Japanese occupation of Korea until the end of World War II before facing pressure from the Biden administration to fix ties and coordinate actions in the face of the threats from China and North Korea.
The chief secretary of the Japanese cabinet, Katunobu Kato, noted that the decision was in conflict with an earlier ruling on a separate case that considered the Japanese government to compensate victims of sexual slavery.
Kato said he would not comment on the new ruling before examining the details more closely, but added that Tokyo’s stance on the issue of sexual slavery remains unchanged. He said the previous ruling violated international law and was unacceptable.
“Japan continues to strongly urge South Korea to take appropriate measures to correct the state of international rape,” he said.
The 20 plaintiffs, who had sued the Japanese government in 2016, included 11 women who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II and relatives of other women who have died.
The court said international law and previous rulings by South Korea’s Supreme Court make it clear that foreign governments should be immune from civil damages claims in terms of their sovereignty.
“If we go against the (principles) of current customary international law in relation to the immunity of states and deny immunity to the accused, a diplomatic confrontation with the accused after the verdict and the process to execute him will become inevitable. by force, ”the court said. in a statement.
One of the plaintiffs, 92-year-old Lee Yong-soo, has been campaigning for South Korea and Japan to resolve their decades-long stalemate over sexual slavery by seeking a ruling from the UN International Court of Justice. .
She has said it has become clear that the issue cannot be resolved through bilateral talks or rulings by South Korean national courts that have been repeatedly rejected by the Japanese government and that friction between governments has damaged friendships between civilians.
“Regardless of the verdict, we will go to the International Court of Justice,” he told reporters after Wednesday’s ruling.
The same court, in a very symbolic January ruling, asked the Japanese government to give 100 million won ($ 89,000) each to a separate group of 12 women who sued in 2013 for their war suffering as sex slaves.
Tens of thousands of women across the Japanese-occupied Asia and the Pacific were transferred to front-line brothels used by the Japanese military. Some 240 South Korean women registered with the government as victims of sexual slavery by the Japanese military; only 15 of which are still alive.
Japan insists that compensation issues were resolved under the 1965 treaty, in which Tokyo provided $ 500 million in financial aid to Seoul.
Amnesty International, in a statement, called Wednesday’s ruling a “great disappointment that does not do justice to the remaining survivors of this system of military slavery and to those who suffered these atrocities before and during World War II, but who already they had died, as had their families. ”
Referring to the January court ruling, Arnold Fang, an East Asian researcher at Amnesty International, said: “What was an important victory for the survivors after a long excessive wait, is now being questioned again. “.
The decision came as Asian American allies struggled to repair their relations that fell to post-war lows in recent years due to history, trade and military problems.
His recurring animosity could complicate President Joe Biden’s efforts to strengthen three-way cooperation with US regional allies, which declined under years of President Donald Trump’s “first America” approach, to coordinate the action in the face of China’s growing influence and North Korea’s nuclear threat.
In addition to the stalemate over sex slavery, South Korea and Japan have disputed South Korean court rulings seeking compensation from Japanese companies that were forced to work in factories during the war. .
Countries have made little progress in repairing their relations, although last month South Korean President Moon Jae-in made a commitment to build “future-oriented ties” with Tokyo. These comments came after Moon, during a January press conference, described this month’s resolution on sex slavery survivors as an “honestly complicated” development for the government’s efforts to improve bilateral relations.
Moon’s office did not immediately comment on Wednesday’s ruling. Aside from historical problems, new tensions have risen after Japan confirmed it would release treated radioactive water into the ocean from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
In 2015, South Korea’s previous conservative government reached an agreement with Japan to “irreversibly” resolve the sexual slavery dispute. Under the agreement, Japan agreed to fund a foundation to support the victims in exchange for South Korea stopping criticizing Japan on the issue.
But the Moon government took steps to dissolve the foundation after he took office in 2017, saying the 2015 deal had no legitimacy because officials did not properly communicate with the victims before they got there. .
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Associated Press journalist Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.