South Korea court rules in favour of victims of wartime sexual slavery

SEOUL: A South Korean court on Thursday ordered Japan to compensate 16 women over forced sexual slavery during World War II, overturning a lower-court ruling that had dismissed the case.

The ruling comes after a lower court in 2021 said the women forced to serve Japanese troops -- euphemistically labelled “comfort women” -- were not entitled to compensation, citing “sovereign immunity” for Tokyo.

But the Seoul High Court ruled on Thursday it was “reasonable to say sovereign immunity should not be respected... in case of illegal conduct”, according to a court document seen by AFP. It ordered that some 200 million won ($154,000) be paid to each of the complainants.

The court said the victims were “forcibly abducted or lured into the sexual enslavement”. It ruled that as a result, they had suffered “damage” and “could not live a normal life post-war”.

Lee Young-soo, a 95-year-old victim and one of the 16 plaintiffs, threw her arms high in joy as she exited a court building. Visibly moved by the ruling, she told reporters: “I am very thankful... I thank the victims who have passed away.”

Mainstream historians say up to 200,000 women -- mostly from Korea, but also other parts of Asia including China -- were forced to become sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II. The issue has long bedevilled bilateral ties between Seoul and Tokyo, which colonised the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.