SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A South Korean woman who was sexually enslaved by the Japanese military in World War II asked the leaders of the two countries to resolve an impasse on the issue, seeking judgment by the International Court of Justice.
The 92-year-old woman, Lee Yong-soo, said on Tuesday that she expects a decision by the highest UN court dealing with disputes to close after she and other survivors campaigned unsuccessfully for 30 years demanding that the government Japanese man accepted legal responsibility for his slavery.
Reading a message to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Lee also lamented that friction between governments over the issue of sexual slavery also damaged civil relations and discouraged youth exchange and friendship, which she said were not being properly educated about wartime history.
Moon’s office had no immediate reaction to Lee’s appeal. Choi Young-sam, a spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the government would “carefully review” Lee’s proposal while listening to more views from survivors .
“Our government will continue to communicate closely with the victims of ‘comfort women’ while trying to resolve the issue,” he said, using a common euphemism for former sex slaves.
It is not clear whether Seoul would consider referring the matter to the UN tribunal, where it has never fought in any case and when anything less than an unbalanced victory can be seen at home as a defeat.
But Lee said it was clear that the issue cannot be resolved through bilateral diplomatic negotiations or decisions by South Korea’s domestic courts that have been repeatedly rejected by the Japanese government.
“I’m not asking for money. (I’m asking for Japan’s full recognition) of responsibilities and apologies, ”said Lee, who sobbed as he read the letter during the news conference in Seoul.
“Not a long time ago. My last wish is for the president, our government, to seek a trial under international law, so that I have something to say when I die and find other survivors. ”
To Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Lee said, “Let’s do this together. We are going to an international court and resolve this issue in the right way once and for all, so that people from both countries can treat each other as friends again … There is no reason to live as enemies ”.
Tens of thousands of women in Asia and the Pacific occupied by the Japanese were transferred to frontline brothels used by the Japanese military.
Bilateral tensions over sexual slavery exploded again last month, when a South Korean court ruled that the Japanese government must give 100 million won ($ 90,000) to each of the 12 victims who filed lawsuits in 2013 because of their suffering during the war.
Japan insists that all compensation issues during the war were resolved under a 1965 treaty that normalized relations with South Korea, in which Tokyo provided $ 500 million in economic assistance to Seoul.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu criticized last month’s court ruling as “an abnormal development absolutely unthinkable under international law and bilateral relations” and accused Seoul of worsening its ties.
Countries were already struggling to repair the relations that reached the lowest point in decades in 2019 in relation to previous South Korean decisions that required Japanese companies to compensate Koreans who were forced to work in factories during the war.
If the matter is referred to the International Court of Justice, South Korea is likely to raise whether Japan’s “comfort women” military sexual slavery system violated international law at the time, said Ethan Hee-Seok Shin, a law international specialist from Yonsei University who joined Lee at the press conference. Japan, on the other hand, could raise procedural issues, as if individual claims would be dismissed by the 1965 agreement.
Although a UN court case can only take place if both countries agree to take their dispute there, it would be illogical for Japan to oppose it when it has already accused the South Korean court of violating international law, he said.
“The survivors are not asking the Japanese government for money, but an apology and acknowledgment of responsibility for the past action and to provide a proper history education (for its audience),” said Shin, saying that such goals would be unattainable through domestic court decisions.
“No matter what kind of decision the International Court of Justice makes, it will certainly have to judge whether the Japanese comfort women’s system violated international law and that would be significant in itself, because it would leave the testimonies of Lee and others behind. survivors as evidence, ”he said.