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Comfort woman's family wins suit against Japan in Korea

Published: 26 Apr. 2025, 09:40

A statue of a girl symbolizing the victims of Japanese wartime sexual slavery, euphemistically called ″comfort women,″ is revealed in Stintino, Italy, for the first time on June 23, 2024, in a photo provided by the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery. [YONHAP]

The family of a late comfort woman has won a damages suit filed against the Japanese government in Korea, a local court said Friday.

The Cheongju District Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, Lee Man-young, the son of the late Gil Gap-soon, and ordered the Japanese government to pay 200 million won ($139,000) in compensation.

This marks the third time a Korean court has issued a ruling recognizing the Japanese government's liability for compensating comfort women victims and their families.

"Both countries are signatories to the Hague Convention, which acknowledges mutual judicial jurisdiction, and a nation can be treated as a legal entity. Although we have not yet received the official ruling, it appears the court accepted these arguments and acknowledged Japan's liability for damages," the plaintiff's attorney said.

Born in 1924 in Muju, North Jeolla, Gil Gap-soon was taken to Nagasaki, Japan, in 1941 at the age of 17 and forced to live as a comfort woman.

She died in 1998 at the age of 74 from acute lung cancer.

Her son filed the lawsuit in January last year, and the ruling came after just two hearings. The Japanese government did not appear in court up to the day the verdict was delivered, the attorney said.

In response to the latest ruling, the Japanese government expressed strong regret, saying the decision "clearly violates international law and agreements between South Korea and Japan," and is "completely unacceptable."

Japan also summoned the Korean ambassador to protest the decision.

Previously, in 2023, the Seoul High Court overturned a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit filed by 16 plaintiffs, including survivor Lee Yong-soo, and the families of the late Kwak Ye-nam and Kim Bok-dong, which had been dismissed on the grounds of sovereign immunity. The appeals court ordered Japan to pay 200 million won to each plaintiff.

In 2021, the Seoul Central District Court also ruled in favor of 12 victims, including the late Bae Chun-hee, ordering Japan to pay 100 million won to each plaintiff.

Yonhap