SEOUL – Japanese government cannot be forced to offer tax compensation to South Korean women forced into captivity for Tokyo army during World War II, Seoul court says, adding new legal uncertainty to long-running dispute duration that diplomacy failed to resolve.
Wednesday’s decision by the central court in Seoul broke with a verdict for a similar case, heard in the same court, just a few months ago. In January, another group of judges ordered the Japanese government to pay about $ 90,000 in compensation to a dozen Korean women.
The two verdicts disagreed on whether the Japanese government should enjoy state immunity, a provision of international law that protects sovereign countries from being tried in foreign courts. The January verdict concluded that the atrocities against the South Korean victims were so severe that they replaced the state immunity exception.
On Wednesday, judges cited a 2012 ruling by the International Court of Justice that dropped a World War II case on Italian victims seeking reparations in Germany, using state immunity as a ground. Nearly two dozen former sex slaves had demanded compensation of about $ 2.7 million from Japan.
“This court does not agree that victims have the right to seek compensation,” the judges said in their ruling. “But for the time being, it is not allowed to sue a foreign country.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers said after Wednesday’s verdict that they were likely to appeal. South Korean courts of appeal – and possibly the country’s Supreme Court – will make final decisions on conflicting lower court decisions. These procedures 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, their lawyers said. One of them, 92-year-old Lee Yong-soo, came to the yard in a wheelchair and a cane. “All I can say is I’m amazed,” she said.
These cases are part of a series of disputes between the two key US allies in Asia. Quarrels are often linked or heightened by decades of unresolved tensions.
In 2019, the two countries faced Japan’s decision to reduce certain technology-related exports to South Korea, with Tokyo giving up its neighbor as a favored trading partner. Seoul jumped on the Tokyo announcement last week that it would release radioactive hydrogen-rich water into the Pacific Ocean. Victims of forced labor in Korea have won legal victories in recent years over unpaid labor during Japan’s colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, upsetting the Tokyo government.
Over the decades, Japan has repeatedly claimed that it has already paid financial compensation. Tokyo refers to two agreements with the Seoul government, including a 2015 agreement in which Shinzo Abe, then Prime Minister of Japan, expressed his “sincere apologies” to Korean women.
The arrangement six years ago aimed to address Korean victims at the center of “comfort women” cases. Japan has agreed to provide $ 8.3 million to set up a foundation to help Korean women. But the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in dropped the agreement after taking office in 2017, saying the agreement does not fully meet the wishes of the victims.
South Korean judges in Wednesday’s decision said the 2015 agreement was still in force.
Tokyo welcomed the decision, calling it appropriate “insofar as it reflects the Japanese government’s position on sovereign immunity,” said chief government spokesman Katsunobu Kato. The relations between the two countries “are in an unprecedented severe situation, because South Korea has not respected international law,” Mr Kato added.
South Korea’s higher courts must now determine which of the two court decisions is more justified, legal experts said. At most, the courts would be able to seize and liquidate the Japanese government’s assets in South Korea to compensate the victims, they said.
Ms Lee, the applicant, stated that she supported bringing the case to the International Court of Justice. Doing so, given the Italy-Germany precedent, would probably result in a decision on Japan’s part. But the international court could recognize that the war crimes were committed by Japan and this could lead to a different behavior of the Tokyo government, said Ethan Shin, a legal expert at the Institute of Legal Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul.
All the victims want is a sincere excuse from Japan – not the money, said Mr Shin, who offered legal advice to victims of sexual slavery, although he did not represent them in court.
Japan’s past apologies, including those of Mr Abe in 2015, failed in part because Japanese officials took further action that undermined the sincerity of previous expressions of grief, he said.
—Peter Landers of Tokyo contributed to this article.
Write to Andrew Jeong at [email protected]
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