SEOUL – The Japanese government can not be forced to provide fiscal compensation to South Korean women who were forced to have sexual slavery for Tokyo’s army during World War II, a court in Seoul said, adding new legal uncertainties to a long-standing dispute that diplomacy fails to resolve.
Wednesday’s ruling by the central district court in Seoul breaks with a ruling for a similar case, which was heard in the same court a few months ago. In January, another set of judges ordered the Japanese government to pay a dozen Korean women about $ 90,000 in compensation.
The two rulings were not even on the question of whether the Japanese government should enjoy state immunity, an international rule of law that protects sovereign countries from trial in foreign courts. The verdict in January found that the atrocities against the South Korean victims were so severe that they replaced the exception on state immunity.
Judges on Wednesday cited a ruling by the International Court of Justice in 2012, citing a World War II case concerning Italian victims seeking compensation from Germany, with state immunity as the reason. Nearly two dozen former sex slaves demanded about $ 2.7 million in compensation for Japan.
“The court does not agree that the victims have the right to claim compensation,” the judges said in their ruling. “But now a foreign country cannot be sued.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers said after Wednesday’s ruling that they would probably appeal. South Korea’s appellate courts – and possibly the country’s Supreme Court – will ultimately rule on the conflicting decisions of the lower court. It could take years, say local legal experts.
Of the nearly two dozen plaintiffs, which include family members or supporters, only four of the victims are still alive, they said. One of them, Lee Yong-soo (92), came to court in a wheelchair and with a cane. “All I can say is that I’m dumb,” she said.
These issues are part of a series of disputes between the two most important Asian allies of the USA. The bickering often hangs or is increased by unresolved, decades-old tension.
In 2019, the two countries quarreled over Japan’s decision to restrict technological exports to South Korea, with Tokyo removing its neighbor as a favorable trading partner. Seoul announced last week that Tokyo will release water with a radioactive form of hydrogen in the Pacific Ocean. Forced labor victims in Korea have achieved legal victories over the past few years over invalid work during Japan’s colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, which irritates the Tokyo government.
Japan has maintained over and over again over the decades that it has already paid financial compensation. Tokyo refers to two agreements with the government of Seoul, including a 2015 agreement, in which Shinzo Abe, the then Japanese prime minister, expressed his “sincere apologies” to Korean women.
The arrangement six years ago aimed to address the Korean victims in the midst of the “comfort women” issues. Japan has agreed to provide $ 8.3 million to set up a foundation that would help Korean women. But the government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in withdrew from the agreement after entering service in 2017, saying the agreement did not fully meet the wishes of the victims.
South Korean judges said in the ruling on Wednesday that the 2015 agreement remains in force.
Tokyo welcomed the decision, calling it appropriate “insofar as it reflects the Japanese government’s position on sovereign immunity,” said Katsunobu Kato, chief spokesman. “The relationship between the two countries” is in unprecedented serious difficulties because South Korea has not complied with international law, “he said. Kato added.
Higher South Korean courts must now determine which of the two rulings is more justified, legal experts said. Supreme courts could only seize Japanese government assets in South Korea to compensate the victims, they said.
Lee, the plaintiff, said she was bringing the case to the International Court of Justice. Doing so, given the Italy-Germany precedent, is likely to lead to a ruling by Japan. But the international court could admit that war crimes were committed by Japan, and this could lead the government in Tokyo to act differently, said Ethan Shin, a legal expert at Yonsei University’s Institute for Legal Studies in Seoul.
All the victims really want is a sincere apology from Japan – not the money, said Mr. Shin said, who provided legal advice to the victims of sexual slavery, although he did not represent them in court.
Previous Japanese apologies, including Mr. Abe, in 2015, fell short in part because Japanese officials took subsequent steps that undermined the sincerity of earlier expressions of grief.
—Peter Landers in Tokyo contributed to this article.
Write to Andrew Jeong by [email protected]
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