SEOUL, South Korea – A South Korean court ordered Japan on Friday to provide financial compensation for 12 South Korean women who had to work as sex slaves for Japanese troops during World War II, the first ruling expected to see hostility among Asian neighbors. would flare up.
Japan immediately protested the ruling, claiming that all wartime compensation issues had been resolved under a 1965 treaty that normalized their ties.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled that the Japanese government must give $ 91,360 each to the 12 women who filed lawsuits in 2013 for their wartime sexual slavery.
The court said the Japanese mobilization of these women as sex slaves was “a crime against humanity.” It said the mobilization took place when Japan “illegally occupied” the Korean peninsula from 1910-45, so its sovereign immunity cannot protect it from lawsuits in South Korea.
The court said the women were victims of “harsh sexual activity” by Japanese forces, which caused physical injuries, venereal disease and unwanted pregnancies, and left “large mental scars” in the women’s lives.
Observers say Japan is unlikely to abide by the South Korean court ruling. A support group for the Korean women said it could take legal action to freeze the assets of the Japanese government in South Korea if Japan refuses to compensate the women.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Deputy Foreign Minister Takeo Akiba had called on South Korean ambassador Nam Gwan-pyo to protest the ruling.
The verdict comes as South Korea tries to re-establish strained ties with Japan over its war history and trade since the departure in September of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who many South Koreans say has tried to cover up Japanese colonial abuses.
Bilateral disputes flared up after a 2018 Supreme Court ruling of South Korea urging Japanese companies to offer reparations to older South Korean claimants for their wartime forced labor. The dispute escalated into a trade war with both countries downgrading the other’s trade status, then spilling over to military affairs when Seoul threatened to end a 2016 military intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo.